Trans-Australian Railway

The Trans-Australian Railway is a railroad system established from 1912 to 1917 to connect Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie across 1,693 kilometres. This system helped to unite the faraway regions of the new Australian Commonwealth and allow people, mail and supplies to cross the central parts of the country with then-unprecedented speed. Although the rail system was greatly expanded in the 1960s, its popularity waned as many travellers and shippers chose aircraft instead of trains. However, the Trans-Australian Railway and its legacy remain an important facet of Australian culture and history.

Background

Prior to the Federation of Australia in 1901, the land was divided between six self-governing British colonies. Beginning in the mid-1800s, leaders began proposing unification plans, but none was successful. Late in the nineteenth century, this push to unite rose again and gained momentum. Some major obstacles stood in the way, however. One of these was the enormous size of Australia, reaching some four thousand kilometres in width.

As of the late 1800s, travel between eastern and western Australia was difficult and often dangerous. It usually involved a lengthy sea voyage across choppy waters. Communication at the time was limited to a single telegraph line. The colonies feared that the difficulty of travel and communication between distant regions would hamper their success. It would make efficient trade and national defence challenging or impossible.

Leaders of the Western Australia colony stated that they would not agree to any federal unification unless a railroad was built to connect the eastern and western regions of the land. This bargain was promoted most aggressively by Western Australian premier John Forrest, who felt that the railroad would greatly improve life in the western regions. He held out in the hope that the massive project could be undertaken with federal funding as part of the unification plan.

Western Australia’s demands made an impact, and unification advocates began investigating a possible new railroad. In 1907, surveyors explored Nullarbor Plain, a flat and mostly arid stretch of land near the southern coast, as a potential sight for a new railroad. Engineers tested the land and deemed the plan a possibility. In 1911, Australian leaders agreed to build the railroad across that stretch to connect the eastern and western regions of the country.

Impact

In 1912, a new organization called Commonwealth Railways was founded to manage the railroad project. This project had come to be known as the Trans-Australian Railway to celebrate its intentions of spanning and uniting the regions of the young country. The approved plan was to build a system of tracks and stations connecting Port Augusta in south-central Australia with Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. That span would cover 1,693 kilometres.

In September of that year, Thomas Denman, better known as Lord Denman, the fifth Governor-General of Australia, oversaw the beginning of the project. He dug a shovel into the earth in Port Augusta to break ground for the construction to begin. Although Denman’s act in Port Augusta was more ceremonial, the construction actually began simultaneously on both ends of the proposed line. Labourers in Port Augusta began laying tracks westward while labourers in Kalgoorlie began laying tracks eastward, with the intention to meet near the middle.

The project was a monumental one. More than 3,400 workers ultimately joined it. Many lived in tent cities along the tracks, some with their families. Provisions trains, called the Tea and Sugar Trains, visited weekly to drop off food and supplies. Meanwhile, the raw equipment for the construction had to be carried in separately, largely by teams of camels or horses. This equipment would include 140,000 tonnes of steel rail and 2.5 million wooden sleepers, or ties, to support the rail.

Despite delays and restrictions due to World War I (1914 – 1918), the labour teams completed their work in five years. On 17 October 1917, officials declared the line finished during a ceremony at a small South Australian town called Ooldea, where the final railroad spike was hammered in. At last, the young country of Australia had been physically—rather than just politically—unified and showed its resolve by completing this significant achievement. John Forrest marked the occasion by stating that ‘East and West are indissolubly joined together by bands of steel’ and that this would surely result in ‘increased prosperity and happiness for the Australian people.’

The effects of the Trans-Australian Railway were immediate and strikingly positive. The first train to complete the entire trip took 42 hours and 48 minutes, a much shorter time than would be required to sail around the coast. This meant not only that people could travel more quickly and easily, but also that mail and other communications could be carried out much faster. Mail delivery time reduced by two or more days in many cases. Trains carried everything from regular people to political luminaries to medicine and lumber.

The ability to travel with relative ease and speed across much of Australia brought cultural benefits as well. Many Australian travellers enjoyed seeing and learning about parts of their country that they had never before experienced first-hand. It gave them new opportunities for vacations and leisure activities and helped build a bustling tourism industry in Western Australia. In addition, the construction and operation of the railroad made new connections between Australians of European heritage and Aboriginal peoples native to the Nullarbor area.

In 1969, engineers greatly expanded the Trans-Australian Railway from its original end points so that it would reach from coast to coast, connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In honour of this achievement, one of the main trains to run the line was christened the Indian-Pacific. This train service prospered for a brief time, but its popularity began to wane as more travellers and shippers chose airlines instead of railroads. Still, the love of the railroad and its legacy has continued for many Australians.

In 2017, historians and railroad enthusiasts met at Kalgoorlie Station to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the first train to travel from that station to Port Augusta. Event attendees shared anecdotes about the railroad and, in some cases, stories from their ancestors about the early days. Some remembered tales of grandparents on vacation sailing around Australia in the pre-railroad era or the early-1900s political situation that culminated in the country-spanning project. Many others discussed their own experiences riding the line and enjoying the unique sights of Australia’s beauty along the way.

Bibliography

Burke, David. Road through the Wilderness: The Story of the Transcontinental Railway, the First Great Work of Australia’s Federation. New South Wales University Press, 1991.

Burke, David. 30 Days on Australia’s Railways: A Diary of September Journeys. Rosenberg, 2014.

Conlin, Michael V. and Geoffrey R. Bird. Railway Heritage and Tourism: Global Perspectives. Channel View Publications, 2014.

Fitch, Ron. Australian Railwayman: From Cadet Engineer to Railways Commissioner. Rosenberg, 2006.

Ive, Bert. “The Commonwealth’s Trans-Australian Railway.” NFSA (National Film and Sound Archive of Australia), www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/commonwealths-trans-australian-railway. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Steese, Jas. G. “The Trans-Australian Railway.” Dickinson College, chronicles.dickinson.edu/studentwork/sheridan/steese/Australia.html. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Tomlin, Sam. “Trans-Australian Railway: 100 Years of Stories of a Railway that Saved Australian Federation.” ABC Goldfields, 26 Oct. 2017, www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-26/train-buffs-unite-to-celebrate-the-trans-australian-railway-line/9085328. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

“Trans-Australian Railway.” National Museum of Australia, 22 Apr. 2020, www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/trans-australian-railway. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.