Railways and Tramways of Australia

From port to capital

 

Western Australia’s Great Southern Railway was officially opened on 1 June 1889.

 

During the 1880s Albany was Western Australia’s main shipping port. However, covering the considerable distance from Perth involved a lengthy journey by coach or coastal boat. A syndicate proposed to build a railway in exchange for a land grant of 12,000 acres per mile (7815 hectares per kilometre) of track. The proposal was accepted for the railway from Albany to Beverley, where it met the government-owned railway.

 

The Albany to Beverley railway was owned by the Western Australian Land Company but operated under the name the Great Southern Railway. It still retains this name today.

 

A special train travelled from Albany to Beverley for the official opening of the line. It arrived shortly before two trains from Perth: one conveying passengers, and a special train for Western Australian Governor Frederick Broome and invited guests. A large crowd gathered for the event. The Governor made a speech and declared the line open. Following this, the trains from Perth backtracked to York, where a banquet was held, before returning to Perth.

 

Great Southern Railway obtained 12 locomotives: two used for shunting at Albany, and ten used for working passenger and goods trains. They purchased 15 passenger carriages and over 50 goods wagons of various types. Trains operated between Albany and Beverley, where they connected with trains to Perth.

 

Although its opening was a grand event, the Great Southern Railway was not profitable. The company also had difficulty selling or leasing the land it had acquired. The Government purchased the Great Southern Railway, along with its locomotives and rolling stock, for £1,100,000 in 1896.

 

Since 1889 the Great Southern Railway has been a vital link between the port at Albany and the Western Australian capital of Perth.

 

Bibliography

AR Bollans (Ed.), One hundred years of the Great Southern Railway, Australian Railway Historical Society (WA Division), Perth, 1989.

G Higham, Marble Bar to Mandurah: a history of passenger rail services in Western Australia, Rail Heritage WA, 2007.

‘Opening of the Great Southern Railway’, The West Australian, 3 June 1889, p 3.