History of Rail in Australia

Australia's first rail systems were mostly built when the country consisted of sparsely settled colonies, before they combined to form a Federation of States in 1901.

Until the middle of the 1800s, people travelled around the colonies of the Australian continent by horse-drawn transport and by coastal shipping services. From 1854, when the first steam railway between Melbourne and Port Melbourne started, the railway system of the various colonies developed rapidly. Initially all track and rolling stock was imported, although by the 1880s most of the equipment was being made locally.

While the railways were operated initially by private companies, a shortage of speculation capital resulted in the continued development of the railways being undertaken by individual colonial governments. The initial purpose of the rail development was to connect the hinterland with the major export seaports which, in most cases, were the capital cities.

Planners gave little thought to connecting their railways with the other rail systems.

By Federation in 1901, all States except Western Australia were ‘linked’ by rail and more than 20,000 km of track had been laid. Sadly, those who envisaged a nation had not contemplated a national rail network. Three different gauges had been used.

New South Wales adopted the European standard gauge of 1435 mm, Victoria and South Australia built with the broad Irish gauge of 1600 mm, and Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia and parts of South Australia used the narrow 1067 mm gauge. For many years, the different gauges handicapped the effective operation of interstate rail services.

In 1917, a person wanting to travel from Perth to Brisbane on an east-west crossing of the continent had to change trains six times.

The independent development of the State rail systems led to significant incompatibility problems, not only in relation to gauge but also equipment and operating practices.

This incompatibility of the State rail systems was brought to a head during World War II when the war effort required large quantities of goods and personnel to be moved quickly throughout Australia. But it was not until June 1995 that trains could travel between Brisbane and Perth, via Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide on a standard gauge track.

By 1970 the situation had improved sufficiently so that a passenger could remain on the same train on a journey from Perth to Sydney. Three different gauges still exist in Australia, but the state capitals are now linked by one uniform gauge.

Steam locomotion was used until the 1950s when diesel-electric locomotives began to take over. Steam locomotives were completely withdrawn in the 1970s, but tourist trips are still available on scenic routes in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

Suburban electric trains operate in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Pert

Go    www.infrastructure.gov.au  for more detail