| History Of Rail Transport In Australia |
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Following the British model, Australia ns generally assumed in the 1850s that railways would be built by the private sector. Private companies attempted to build Railways in the colonies (states after Federation In 1901) of New South Wales , Victoria and South Australia . The first line opened in South Australia in 1854 as a horse-drawn line, while the first steam-powered line opened in Victoria a little later in 1854. It was soon established that the private railways were not financially viable, and the building of rail networks was taken over by colonial governments. This also enabled railways to be developed to promote development, even if not apparently viable in strictly financial terms. The railway systems spread from the colonial capitals, except in cases where geography dictated a choice of an alternate port. Private railways There have always been niches for private railways in most colonies, such as:
Break of gauge . To accommodate these changes, a very long railway platform was needed; the covered platform is one of the longest in Australia.]] The Australian colonies failed to follow advice from the British Government to adopt a uniform Gauge in case the lines of the various states should ever meet. The original Irish engineer persuaded the New South Wales legislature to require that all railways in the colony be of the Irish 5' 3" inch (1600 mm "broad") Gauge . Subsequently a Scots engineer persuaded the legislature to change to 4' 8½" (1435 mm, " Standard Gauge "). Unfortunately Victoria and South Australia had ordered Broad Gauge rolling-stock and refused to follow this change. In addition, the other colonies, starting with the Queensland line from Ipswich to Toowoomba , sought to save money by building to a 3' 6" (1067 mm) gauge, known in Australia as "narrow gauge". Therefore, in the middle of the 20th century there were almost equal amounts of each gauge. The mainline systems of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland met (albeit with three Breaks Of Gauge ) in the 1880s . Only Victoria and South Australia shared a common gauge, and even so they opted to change engines at the border. The other mainland colony, Western Australia , was isolated by 2,000 km of desert. Off network gauges Off the networks constructed by the various government railways, there have been a variety of rail gauges:
Timeline
NEW SOUTH WALES |
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