Railways and Tramways of Australia

9 August

Scottsdale Railway Station, c. 1900–1910. Photo: T R G Williams, Libraries Tasmania, NS786-1-61.

Railway for the north-east

The railway between Launceston and Scottsdale opened on 9 August 1889.

Tasmania’s scenic North-Eastern Line was opened to provide transport for agricultural products, timber and minerals. A contract for construction of the 47-mile (76-km) section from Launceston to Scottsdale was awarded to M Boland and R Scott of Launceston, the first Tasmanians to successfully bid for a railway contract. A small locomotive was purchased to assist with construction and work began in 1885.

The major engineering task on the line was construction of a lengthy tunnel through the Denison Range. It has a length of 704 metres and took around three years to complete. Progress was hampered by high rainfall. The line also had ten bridges and numerous small culverts.

While construction was still underway, a passenger train conveying the Governor of Tasmania, Sir Robert Hamilton, ran to the end of the line on 2 January 1889. The contractors then began operating unofficial freight services.

For the official opening of the line a decorated train conveying Governor Hamilton departed from Launceston. There was a brief stop at Lilydale before the train continued to Scottsdale. An official ceremony was followed by a banquet for 270 invited guests.

Scottsdale remained the terminus until 1911 when the line was extended to Branxholme. It was another eight years before the final section as opened to Herrick. Services on the line were mixed trains and goods trains, but a rail motor operated from 1926 to 1956.

Part of the line was closed in 1994 before all services were suspended in 2004. The line beyond Scottsdale has been dismantled. Launceston and North East Railway hopes to operate a train on part of the remaining line in the future.

Bibliography

L Rae & T Coen, 150 years of railways in Tasmania, Lou Rae and Tony Coen, Hobart, 2021.

HJW Stokes, ‘The north-eastern line of the Tasmanian Government Railways’, Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, no. 713, March 1997, pp 67–77.

HJW Stokes, ‘The north-eastern line of the Tasmanian Government Railways’, Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, no. 714, April 1997, pp 107–121.

‘Tasmania’s North-East line closed’, Railway Digest, vol. 42, no. 11, November 2004, p 6.

‘The Scottsdale railway’, The Tasmanian, 10 August 1889, p 13.

Opening of Scottsdale railway station, 9 August 1889. Photo: Libraries Tasmania, AB713-1-6097.