Mount Gambier railway line
| Mount Gambier railway line | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | |||
| System | South Australian Railways | ||
| Status | Closed | ||
| Termini | Wolseley Mount Gambier |
||
| Continues from | Adelaide-Wolseley line | ||
| Continues as | Millicent line Mount Gambier-Heywood line |
||
| Operation | |||
| Opened | Wolseley-Tatiara: 18 April 1883 Tatiara-Naracoorte: 21 September 1881 Naracoorte-Mount Gambier: 14 June 1887 |
||
| Closed | April 1995 | ||
| Operator(s) | South Australian Railways Australian National |
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| Technical | |||
| Line length | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). | ||
| Track gauge | 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) | ||
| Old gauge | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) | ||
|
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The Mount Gambier railway line was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network. Opened in stages from 1881, it was built to narrow gauge and joined Mount Gambier railway station, which was at that time the eastern terminus of a line to Millicent. It connected at Naracoorte to another isolated narrow gauge line joining Naracoorte to Kingston SE, and to the broad gauge Adelaide-Wolseley line at Wolseley, at around the same time that was extended to Serviceton to become the South Australian part of the Melbourne-Adelaide railway.
Contents
History
The railway connecting Mount Gambier to Naracoorte was initially approved by the Parliament of South Australia in 1867 to be built to 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) gauge.[2] However it was not built at this time, and that act was repealed by a later authorisation in 1884 to build it on the same alignment to 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge.[3]
On 21 September 1881, the first section of the line opened from Naracoorte to Tatiara. It was extended north to Wolseley on 18 April 1883 and south from Naracoorte to Mount Gambier on 14 June 1887.[4][5]
On 22 August 1904, a 14.2 kilometre branch line was constructed from Wandilo, 13 kilometres north of Mount Gambier, to Glencoe.[6] The branch closed on 1 July 1957.[4][7]
On 28 November 1917, the Victorian Railways opened a broad gauge line from Heywood.[4][8] The Mount Gambier line was gauge converted to broad gauge (to match both ends) in the 1950s. Australian National passenger services ceased in 1990.[9] When the Melbourne-Adelaide railway was converted to standard gauge, the Mount Gambier line was not converted and closed in April 1995.[4] In 2001, expressions of interest were sought for a private operator to reopen the line with the government offering financial assistance to gauge convert, but nothing came of it.[10] Part of the line was used by the Limestone Coast Railway tourist service, until it ceased in 2006.
Stations
The stations and sidings included:[11]
- Wolseley
- Custon
- Bangham
- Frances
- Binnum
- Kybybolite
- Hynam
- Naracoorte
- Struan
- Glenroy
- Coonawarra
- Penola
- Krongart
- Kalangadoo
- Wandilo
- Mount Gambier
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Mount Gambier Line Vicsig
- ↑ Friday rewind - bus travel 1940s style ABC South East SA 16 January 2015
- ↑ South East Rail Freight Operations] Department for Transport, Urban Planning & the Arts Annual Report 30 June 2002 page 21
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
