Eastern Goldfields Railway

The Eastern Goldfields Railway, was built in the 1890s by the Western Australian Government Railways to connect Perth with the Eastern Goldfields at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie.^[1]

Eastern Goldfields Railway
The Prospector at Kellerberrin with the Goldfields water pipeline in the foreground & the CBH grain receival point in the background
Overview
Owner	Public Transport Authority
Termini	Northam Kalgoorlie
Service
Operator(s)	Arc Infrastructure
History
1 July 1894: opened Northam to Southern Cross	1 July 1896: opened Southern Cross to Boorabbin 1 January 1897: opened Boorabbin to Kalgoorlie February 1966: Bellevue to Northam added gauge and changed route 1968: Northam to Kalgoorlie, replaced narrow gauge with standard gauge and changed route
Technical
Line length	373 kilometres
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) dual gauge
Old gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)

It is a part of the interstate standard gauge railway between Perth and the rest of Australia.

Originally, at construction, the railway line was referred to as the Yilgarn Railway, named after the Yilgarn Godlfields, but this was changed to Eastern Goldfields Railway around 1899 or 1900.^[2] It had also been referred to as the Fremantle–Kalgoorlie Railway.^[3] Operationally in the WAGR era, the line was considered to be between Northam and Kalgoorlie, despite historical material extending the name to Perth.^[4]

Operator Arc has Merredin as the location of the start of the EGR in their network operations.^[5]

History

Eastern Goldfields Railway
Legend
Eastern Railway Great Southern Railway Northam old Northam new Northam-Goomalling railway Mortlock River Seabrook Grass Valley Mortlock River East Meckering Waeel Cunderdin Wyola Livesey Crossing Tammin Bungulla Kellerberrin Woolundra Doodlakine Hines Hill Bruce Rock-Merredin railway West Merredin Merredin-Wyalkatchem railway Merredin Narrogin-Kondinin-Merredin railway Booraan Burracoppin Carrabin Bodallin Nulla Nulla Moorine Rock Southern Cross-Wyalkatchem railway Southern Cross Lake Julia Koolyanobbing Koolyanobbing East Wallaroo Bonnie Vale Esperance branch railway West Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie Leonora branch line Trans-Australian Railway

The Yilgarn Railway Act 1892, an act by the Parliament of Western Australia assented to on 18 March 1892, authorised the construction of the railway line from Northam to Southern Cross.^[6] The Southern Cross-Coolgardie Railway Act 1894, assented to on 23 November 1894, authorised construction of a railway line from Southern Cross to Coolgardie.^[7] A third act, the Coolgardie–Kalgoorlie Railway Act 1895, assented to on 2 October 1895, authorised construction of a railway line from Coolgardie to Kalgoorlie.^[8]

The Eastern Railway opened in stages from Perth to Northam in the 1890s, and the Eastern Goldfields Railway extended this line through semi-desert to the Eastern Goldfields.^[9][10]

It opened in stages between 1894 and 1897.^[11]

• Northam to Southern Cross: 175 miles 14 chains (281.9 km) (opened 1 July 1894).^[12]
• Southern Cross to Boorabbin: 60 miles 55 chains (97.7 km) (opened 1 July 1896)
• Boorabbin to Kalgoorlie: 78 miles 14 chains (125.8 km) (opened 1 January 1897).^[13]

The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme pipeline was later constructed along the railway line. The chief engineer for both the railway and the pipeline was C. Y. O'Connor.

In October 1917, the Commonwealth Railways' standard gauge Trans-Australian Railway from Port Augusta was completed through to Kalgoorlie, making it a break-of-gauge station.

Branches

At Kalgoorlie, lines branch off north to Malcolm and Leonora; and south to Esperance via the Esperance line. The Malcolm–Laverton branch was last used in 1957 and closed in 1960.^[14][15][16]

Gauge conversion

As part of the Federal Government's program to build a standard gauge line across Australia and the passing of the Railways (Standard Gauge) Construction Act 1961, work commenced on gauge converting the line to dual gauge with a new alignment further north of the existing line built between Southern Cross and Kalgoorlie.^[when?] From Northam to Southern Cross, the railway was also realigned to reduce the number of road crossings, increase the minimum radius of curvature and lower the ruling gradient to 1:150.

The new alignment, as well as being generally straighter and more favourably graded, provided access to the iron ore deposits at Koolyanobbing, which were shipped by rail to Kwinana, near Perth, to supply Australian Iron and Steel's blast furnace.^{[11][17][18][19]}

The first official standard gauge iron ore train from Koolyanobbing arrived at Kwinana on 10 July 1967. On 3 August 1968, the Koolyanobbing–Kalgoorlie section opened for freight trains and on 4 November 1968, the first through freight train from Port Pirie arrived in Perth.^[20][21]

Upgrades

In November 2005, funding was announced to extend eight crossing loops to accommodate 1,800-metre-long (5,900 ft) trains at Bodallin, Darrine, Wallaroo, Lake Julia, Grass Valley, Bungulla, Booraan and Seabrook, and replace the final 76 kilometres (47 mi) of timber sleepers with concrete sleepers.^[22]

Services

Transwa's MerredinLink and Prospector services from Perth to Merredin and Kalgoorlie traverse the line^[23] as does Journey Beyond's Indian Pacific to Sydney. Other named trains to previously use the line were The Westland, The Kalgoorlie and the Trans-Australian.

Intrastate and interstate freight services are operated by Aurizon, Mineral Resources, Pacific National and SCT Logistics. CBH Group operate grain trains.

References

1. Souvenir brochure 60th anniversary celebrations of the opening of the railway to Coolgardie 23 March 1896, [Coolgardie], 1956, retrieved 5 March 2012
2. "Boulder Railway Station, Subway & Loopline". inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au. Heritage Council of Western Australia. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
3. "Fremantle–Kalgoorlie (Merredin–Coolgardie Section) Railway Act 1912". www.legislation.wa.gov.au. Government of Western Australia. 10 October 1912. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
4. Rome, E.G (1907), Eastern Goldfields Railway in the Darling Range near Swan View, retrieved 12 October 2024 The Perth to Northam line has been the Eastern Railway (Western Australia) since construction
5. "Network Control Boundaries" (PDF). Retrieved 12 October 2024.
6. "Yilgarn Railway Act 1892". www.legislation.wa.gov.au. Government of Western Australia. 18 March 1892. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
7. "Southern Cross-Coolgardie Railway Act 1894". www.legislation.wa.gov.au. Government of Western Australia. 23 November 1894. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
8. "Coolgardie–Kalgoorlie Railway Act 1895". www.legislation.wa.gov.au. Government of Western Australia. 2 October 1895. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
9. Searle, M. J. (January 1983), "The Eastern and Eastern Goldfields Railways [Series of parts] Part 1: construction and opening", RIM: Western Australian Railways Institute Magazine, 80 (Jan 1983): 3–8, retrieved 5 March 2012
10. Searle, M. J. (February 1983), "The Eastern and Eastern Goldfields Railways [Series of parts] Part 2. – Constructions of extensions-", RIM: Western Australian Railways Institute Magazine, 80 (Feb 1983): 2–3, 5–6, retrieved 5 March 2012
11. Newland, Andrew; Quinlan, Howard (2000). Australian Railway Routes 1854 – 2000. Redfern: Australian Railway Historical Society. pp. 63, 67. ISBN 0-909650-49-7.
12. Referred to as the 'Yilgarn railway' "The Northam-Yilgarn Railway". Central Districts Advertiser and Agriculture and Mining Journal. Vol. 1, no. 21. Western Australia. 14 April 1894. p. 3. Retrieved 23 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
13. "BOORABBIN". Western Mail. Vol. XII, no. 576. Western Australia. 8 January 1897. p. 10. Retrieved 23 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
14. "Railways (Cue-Big Bell and Other Railways) Discontinuance" (PDF). State Law Publisher. Perth, WA: Department of the Premier and Cabinet. 1960. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
15. "Station Master's House (fmr), Laverton". inHerit Our Heritage Places. Perth, WA: State Heritage Council. 27 February 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
16. Brookfield Rail Network Map Brookfield Rail
17. Webb Report 1976 Australian Transport Research Forum
18. History of Rail in Australia Department of Infrastructure & Regional Development
19. Carpenter, Alan John (24 November 2005). "BHP Billiton (Termination of Agreements) Agreement Bill 2005". Hansard. Perth, WA: Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
20. "Standard Gauge Railway Project Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR)" (PDF). Perth, WA: State Library of Western Australia. 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
21. Brady, Ian (June 1971). "A Brief History of Standard Gauge in Australia". Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin. XXII (404). Australian Railway Historical Society: 98–120.
22. Western Australia to Receive Additional Australian Government Rail Funding Federal Minister for Transport 24 November 2005
23. Timetables Archived 2 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine Transwa

Further reading

• "Automatic Signalling for Eastern Goldfields Standard Gauge Line". Railway Transportation: 25–28. January 1973. Retrieved 23 June 2024.