Perth Tramways | Western Australia

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A Class tram No. 3 heading west along Hay Street on the opening day of the electric tramway network in Perth, September 1899. Photo: oocities/carbarn1au, Wikimedia Commons.

G Class tram No. 38, showing Hay Street East destination board, with driving/conducting staff, between 1905 and 1910. Photo: State Library of Western Australia, Wikimedia Commons.

Perth Tramways

David Matheson

10 August 2025

An electric passenger tramway system operated in Perth from 1899 until 1958. It was originally owned by a private company but was taken over by the Western Australian Government in 1913. Trams ran along various routes in the central business district and nearby suburbs.

Horse Tramways

A horse-drawn tramway was built in 1897for the purpose of removing nightsoil but was never used in regular operation. The North Perth Sanitation Tramway extended a distance of two and a half miles (4 km) from near Perth railway yards, along Fitzgerald Street to a site called Reserve 943, later known as Maylands Sanitary Depot, which was located in the vicinity of the current Alexander Park Tennis Club. It was designed and constructed by the Public Works Department, likely using a gauge of 24 inches (610 mm). A trial trip to test the line ran under the supervision of Edward Lee, the Chief Inspector of the Perth Local Board of Health, the City Engineer and a City Councillor. Cans were filled with water to provide weight and the journey began, but the tram capsized upon reaching a curve. The line was in poor condition and was never approved by the Board of Health. Perth City Council instead constructed a pipeline and pumping station to move waste.

Brimson (1983, p. 159) says that a horse tramway was constructed from the General Post Office to East Perth and was closed in 1900. However, Culpeffer-Cooke, Gunzburg & Pleydell (2010, p. 21) report that a search through Perth City Council minutes and correspondence has no mention of tramways being built prior to the electric tramway system. It is likely that horse-drawn trams never carried passengers in Perth, although horse-drawn buses operated. On 1 July 1899, when construction of the electric tramway system was in progress, a tram that had not yet been fitted with electrical equipment was pulled by horses along Hay Street, but did not carry passengers.

Electric Trams

The Tramways Act, 1885, was passed by the Legislative Council in September that year. It enabled provisional orders for the construction of tramways to be given by local authorities, but a bill to ratify construction would then need to be passed. A group of businessmen developed a proposal for tramways in Perth in 1885, but lack of funds resulted in them not proceeding further. Tramway plans by Adolph Lehman in 1889 and Charles Dickinson in 1897 were both given provisional orders and authorising bills passed parliament, but did not eventuate.

Perth Tramways, Limited, was registered as a company in London on 4 February 1898, changing its name to Perth Electric Tramways, Limited, on 4 July of that year. Dickinson’s tramway proposal, which had been authorised with the City of Perth Tramways Act, 1897, was transferred to the new company. However, changes to the proposed routes were made. The first sod for construction to begin was turned by Miss Forrest, daughter of Alexander Forrest, the Mayor of Perth, on 31 January 1899. Tram lines were built to narrow (1067 mm) gauge, the same as the railways in the state.

Public tram services commenced running on 28 September 1899. The first line ran along Hay Street between East Perth and Thomas Street in West Perth. A branch line extended along Colin Street to Kings Park Road. Trams were serviced in a car barn at the end of Hay Street, near the WACA cricket oval. Lines were opened in subsequent years to the following destinations on the dates shown.

Subiaco: 8 January 1900
Highgate Hill: 2 October 1900
North Perth: 10 October 1900
Leederville: 23 January 1901
Lord Street: 16 November 1901
East Perth: 30 December 1901
Mount Hawthorn: 30 December 1901
Osborne Park: 11 April 1903
Port Lewis: 18 April 1903
Wellington St to Thomas St: 13 February 1905
Victoria Park: 5 July 1905
Nedlands: 19 October 1908
Mount Lawley: 21 March 1910
City Baths: 5 February 1915
City Baths to Nedlands: 24 December 1915
South Perth: 5 August 1922
Claremont to Westana Road: 26 April 1924
Crawley to Claremont: 19 May 1924
Wembley Park: 20 November 1926
Maylands: 7 March 1928
WACA Loop: 23 December 1929
Welshpool: 21 September 1942
Inglewood: 8 March 1943.

Further extensions were later made to some of these lines.

Perth Electric Tramways, Limited signed an agreement on 23 May 1912 to sell the company to the Western Australian Government. A bill to endorse the agreement passed through parliament and the tramway system was transferred to the government on 1 July 1913, becoming part of the Western Australian Government Railways. The Osborne Park line was owned by the Town Properties of Western Australia, which had taken over its operation from Perth Electric Tramways, Limited, in 1908. Its operation was transferred to the government on 1 July 1913, and on 15 December 1914 it also came under government ownership. In July 1949 responsibility for tramways was transferred to the newly-established Western Australian Government Tramways and Ferries.

Tramcars

Perth’s first ten tramcars were built by JG Brill & Company of Philadelphia in the United States. They were single-truck cars, featuring clerestory roof and transverse seating for 28 passengers. A summary of Perth’s electric passenger tramcars is shown in the following table.

The B Class (2nd) included new trams as well as trams rebuilt from the A (1st) and B (1st) Classes. The K Class trams were classified along with the A (2nd) Class by the Government Tramways, but have been classified separately by Pleydell (2001, Appendix B).

From 1953 a fleet of 40 bogie cars was retained in service by exchanging controllers taken from cars that had been scrapped. These 40 cars were all members of the E, D and A (2nd) Classes.

Closure

As with most other Australian cities, moves were made to close the tramway system in Perth following the end of the Second World War, but some lines had already been closed. Although there was resistance from the tramway union, various lines were closed in the late 1940s and older trams were withdrawn from service.

On 28 November 1953 the Newcastle Street and William Street sections closed, leaving the Subiaco, Inglewood and North Perth lines as the only lines remaining open. The Metropolitan (Perth) Passenger Transport Trust was formed in November 1957 with its primary responsibility being the coordination of bus services, but also the closure of the remaining tram lines. A Class tram No. 118 operated the last service on the North Perth line on 1 February and D Class No. 88 formed the final service on the Subiaco line on 19 April.

The final closure of the system took place on 19 July 1958. E Class tram No. 66 operated the last passenger service from Barrack Street Jetty to Inglewood and return. A crowd of around 2000 people gathered at Inglewood to farewell the tram. A short ceremony was held upon arrival back at Barrack Street, where the Minister for Transport paid tribute to the service that trams had provided to the community. A final ceremonial trip was made up Barrack Street and along Hay Street to the car barn. Invited guests included William Taylor, the first General Manager of the Government Tramways, retired tramway employees and government officials. Mounted police escorted the tram. The crew on the final run were driver Bill Davies, assistant Robert Penna and conductor Steve Connell. Perth became the first Australian capital city to completely close its tramway system. Some of the tram routes were replaced by electric trolley buses, but these were eventually withdrawn and replaced by diesel buses.

Perth Electric Tramway Society

The Perth Electric Tramway Society operates heritage electric tramcars at Whiteman Park, located in north-east Perth. The society has a collection of 29 trams, including 11 from Perth, four from Fremantle, two from Kalgoorlie, eight from Melbourne, two from Adelaide, one from Ballarat and one from Brisbane. Trams from Perth include the A (2nd), B (2nd), C, D, E, G and I Classes. E Class No. 66, which operated the last service on 19 July 1958, is one of the trams preserved and is in operating condition. Trams operate on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, with daily services during school holidays. Whiteman Park is located approximately 20 km north-east of Perth.

References

Brimson, S, The tramways of Australia, Dreamweaver, Sydney, 1983.

Brown, D & Ward, D (Ed.), Destination Whiteman Park, Perth Electric Tramway Society, 2018.

Crellin, IR, ‘The rise and fall of the North Perth Sanitation Tramway’, Light Railways, no. 71, January 1981, pp. 6–9.

Culpeffer-Cooke, T, Gunzburg, A & Pleydell, I, Tracks by the Swan: the electric tram and trolley bus era of Perth, Western Australia, Perth Electric

Tramway Society, 2010.

Parliament of Western Australia, Report on the working of the Government Railways and Tramways for the year ended 30th June 1915,

Government Printer, Perth, 1915.

Perth Electric Tramway Society <www.pets.org.au>.

‘Perth trams bow out’, Electric Traction, vol. 13, no. 9, September 1958, pp. 9–11.

Pleydell, I, The history of the Perth electric tramways, 1885 to 1969, Mooroopna, 2001.

B Class tram heading south in Barrack Street after crossing the Barrack Street Bridge. The Perth Town Hall clock tower can be seen in the centre of the image, with a northbound tram visible below it, 1918. Source Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

G Class tram No. 38 on the Horseshoe Bridge over the Perth railway station in 1950. The tram is at the southern edge of the bridge and will shortly cross over Wellington Street. Photo: Bahnfrend, Wikimedia Commons.