Book on North Borneo Railway and Jesselton
KOTA KINABALU: The Opus Publication yesterday launched another book entitled “The Building of the North Borneo Railway and the Founding of Jesselton”.
According to Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew, the book touches on the early commercial development of North Borneo and is written by Ross Ibbotson who drew on his considerable personal experience accumulated through a career spanning over 50 years in Borneo and other tropical countries to explain to the readers the practical difficulties faced by engineers around the early 1900s.
“The book is profusely illustrated with more than 400 photographs of the railway and the development of prewar Jesselton -- ultimately to become Kota Kinabalu and the capital city of Sabah -- which will attract readers. But the chapters covering the building of the railway with its many rare illustrations of the vintage steam locomotives that were employed will undoubtedly be sought after by railway enthusiasts all over the world,” she said.
She added that the new title was Ibbotson’s third book on the history of Sabah.
The writer also wrote Silimpopon: A Borneo Coal Mine which was published in 2007, and the History of Logging in North Borneo, which was published in 2014.
“His contribution to the history of Sabah is remarkable and I commend his efforts to document the State’s early history which is not wellknown even to us Sabahans.”
Also present at the event were publisher Datuk C.L. Chan, Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai and the writer’s son and daughter-in-law, Michael and Sacha Ibbotson.