The Ballaarat Tramline, also known as the Lockville – Yoganup Railway, was the first railway in Western Australia, constructed in 1871 by the Western Australian Timber Company. The railway was used to transport timber from forests in the South West to the company's jetty at Lockville using the Ballaarat steam engine.
The W.A. Timber Company constructed the 12-mile (19 km) long Ballaarat Tramline in 1871 between Lockville and Yoganup. Governor Weld officially opened the railway on 23 December 1871. [1] [2]
The tramline was the first railway in Western Australia. It also included the Ballaarat Bridge – the first bridge constructed to conduct a steam locomotive in Western Australia. [3]
The tramline's name originated from the locomotive that operated on the railway, named Ballaarat by the Mayor of Melbourne on the original spelling of the Victorian town of Ballarat where the locomotive was constructed. [3] [4]
The W.A. Timber Company was liquidated in 1888 and its assets auctioned. [5]
In 1897 the W.A. Timber Company's former timber concession was leased to the Jarrah Wood and Saw Mills Company. The section of the Ballaarat Tramline route south of the Bunbury-Busselton railway [6] was reused for the Nannup Branch Railway between Wonnerup and Jarrahwood. [7]
A plaque and locomotive wheel commemorating the Ballaarat Tramline is located at Wonnerup House. [3]
The Ballaarat steam engine now resides in Railway House, attached to the Visitor Centre on the Busselton foreshore.
Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately 220 km (140 mi) south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton Port in 1972 and the contemporaneous establishment of the nearby Margaret River wine region have seen tourism become the dominant source of investment and development, supplemented by services and retail. The city is best known for the Busselton Jetty, the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.
Australians generally assumed in the 1850s that railways would be built by the private sector. Private companies built railways in the then colonies of Victoria, opened in 1854, and New South Wales, where the company was taken over by the government before completion in 1855, due to bankruptcy. South Australia's railways were government owned from the beginning, including a horse-drawn line opened in 1854 and a steam-powered line opened in 1856. In Victoria, the private railways were soon found not to be financially viable, and existing rail networks and their expansion were taken over by the colony. Government ownership also enabled railways to be built to promote development, even if not apparently viable in strictly financial terms. The railway systems spread from the colonial capitals, except for a few lines that hauled commodities to a rural port.
The townsite of Wonnerup is located 219 kilometres (136 mi) south of Perth and 10 kilometres (6 mi) east of Busselton. It was gazetted a townsite in 1856, deriving its name from the nearby Wonnerup Inlet.
The Flinders Bay Branch Railway, also known as the Boyanup to Flinders Bay Section ran between Boyanup and Flinders Bay, in South Western Western Australia. The section from Flinders Bay to Busselton has now been converted into a rail trail for bushwalkers and cyclists, called the Wadandi Trail.
Railways in Western Australia were developed in the 19th century both by the Government of Western Australia and a number of private companies. Today passenger rail services are controlled by the Public Transport Authority through Transperth, which operates public transport in Perth, and Transwa, which operates country passenger services. Journey Beyond operates the Indian Pacific.
The City of Busselton is a local government area in the South West region of Western Australia, approximately 230 km (140 mi) south of Perth, the state capital. The city covers an area of 1,455 km2 (562 sq mi) and had a population of 40,640 as at the 2021 Census. It contains two large towns, Busselton and Dunsborough, and a number of smaller towns. The city office is located on Southern Drive, Busselton.
The earliest trams in Australia operated in the latter decades of the 19th century, hauled by horses or "steam tram motors". At the turn of the 20th century, propulsion almost universally turned to electrification, although cable trams lingered in Melbourne. In cities and towns that had trams, they were a major part of public transport assets.
The Vasse-Wonnerup Estuary is an estuary in the South West region of Western Australia close to the town of Busselton. The estuary is listed with DIWA. It was also recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention on 7 June 1990 when an area of 1,115 ha was designated Ramsar Site 484 as an important dry-season habitat for waterbirds. It is also the main part of the 2,038 ha (5,040-acre) Busselton Wetlands Important Bird Area.
The Vasse and Wonnerup Floodgates is a heritage listed site in Western Australia that comprises two locations. The two locations are the site of the Vasse floodgates on the Vasse River and the Wonnerup floodgates on the Wonnerup Estuary. In addition, the 2004 site of the Vasse floodgates was also the site of the Ballarat Bridge which was built in 1871 as part of a logging rail line where the Ballarat Steam engine was the first steam engine to operate in Western Australia.
W.A. Timber Company was a syndicate of Victorian investors granted a timber concession of 181,500 acres on Geographe Bay in the south west of Western Australia in 1870.
The Nannup Branch Railway, also known as the Wonnerup to Nannup Railway, was a branch line of the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) between Wonnerup and Nannup.
Charles Henry Layman was an Australian politician who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1904 to 1914, representing the seat of Nelson.
Geographe is a suburb of the Western Australian city of Busselton. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 3,622.
The Ballaarat steam engine, built by James Hunt's Victoria Foundry in the city of Ballarat, Victoria in 1871, was the first 1067 mm gauge locomotive built in Australia. It was purchased by the Western Australian Timber Company, which was awarded one of only three milling concessions granted in the colony. The company had 181,500 acres to mill at Yoganup, near the town of Busselton.
The Northcliffe Branch, also known as the Northcliffe Section or Picton to Northcliffe Line, is the railway route between Picton and Northcliffe in Western Australia.
WAGR G class G233 Leschenault Lady is a preserved 2-6-0 steam locomotive, built in 1898 by James Martin & Co of Gawler, South Australia, for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR). It is the third oldest Australian-built steam locomotive still in operational order, after Victorian Railways Y class 112 and WAGR A class 15.
St Mary's Anglican Church is a heritage-listed Anglican church in Peel Terrace, Busselton, Western Australia. It is possibly the oldest stone church in the state. Opened in 1845, and consecrated in 1848, it has been the subject of a number of additions, and has also been repaired or conserved on several occasions.
Yoganup is a rural locality of the City of Busselton in the South West region of Western Australia. It is the largest locality in the City of Busselton but has the second-lowest population, being almost completely forested. Whicher National Park is almost completely located within Yoganup and the small town of Jarrahwood is completely surrounded by the locality, but not part of it. The Vasse Highway passes through the south-west of Yoganup.