Railways and Tramways of Australia
27 February
Ceremony for the turning of the first sod on the Midland Railway at Guildford, Western Australia, 1 March 1886, two days after the signing of the Waddington Agreement for construction of the line. Photo: Rail Heritage WA, P00226.
Agreements in the west
The Waddington Agreement was signed by the Governor of Western Australia on 27 February 1886.
John Waddington represented a syndicate of English capitalists who had proposed construction of a railway from York to Geraldton. After a period of negotiation and amendments, an agreement was signed for the construction, maintenance and working of a railway line.
Following the signing of the agreement on 27 February, the first sod was turned by the Governor in a ceremony on 1 March. Guests were conveyed by special train from Fremantle and Perth to a location near Guildford, where the ceremony was held. The location soon became known as Midland Junction.
The section from Geraldton to Greenough Flats (Walkaway) was opened in July 1887. However, further construction was suspended when the contractor, Edward Keane, experienced financial difficulties. In 1890 the Midland Railway Company was floated in England and was tasked with completing the railway.
Work resumed and the first section of the line opened from West Midland to Gin Gin in April 1891. More sections were subsequently opened but financial troubles caused further delays. Finally, the completed Midland Railway was opened for regular traffic in November 1894.
The completed line between Midland Junction and Walkaway was a distance of 277 miles (445.8 km). It was the longest non-government railway in Australia until the development of the Pilbara iron ore railways from the 1960s. The Midland Railway fostered development of the rich agricultural lands in the state’s Midlands region. It operated passenger, goods and mixed trains. The company had its own fleet of locomotives.
By the early 1960s the infrastructure of the Midland Railway required rehabilitation and much of its motive power needed replacement. An agreement was reached, and it was taken over by the Western Australian state government in 1964.
Bibliography
Centenary of the Midland Railway 1894–1994: commemorative souvenir booklet, Australian Railway Historical Society (WA Division), Perth, 1994.
‘News of the week’, Western Mail, 6 March 1886, p 11.
P Rogers, Memories of the Midland Railway Co. of Western Australia, Rail Heritage WA, Perth, 2014.
MJ Searle, ‘A short history of the Midland Railway Company’, Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, no. 555, January 1984, pp 1–17.
‘The Midland Railway’, The West Australian, 2 March 1886, p 3.
Midland Railway of Western Australia B Class locomotive no. B6 with a mixed train at Watheroo around 1910. Photo: State Library WA, Passey collection of photographs, 5323B/620-621,713.
