Mount Pleasant Line | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Status | Closed and Removed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | Adelaide, South Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Termini | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1918 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | 1963 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line length | 33.8 km (21.0 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of tracks | single track | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Mount Pleasant railway line was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network. It was opened between Balhannah and Mount Pleasant in September 1918 and ran until March 1963 [1] as a freight and passenger service. [2] Part of its trackbed is now the Amy Gillett Bikeway rail trail near to Adelaide. [3]
The line opened on 16 September 1918 between Balhannah, 10 kilometres east of Mount Lofty, and Mount Pleasant. [4] It had six stations and a number of halts; typically, the halts were located near level crossings. The six stations were Oakbank, Woodside, Charleston, Mount Torrens, Birdwood, and Mount Pleasant. The seven halts were Mappinga, Riverview, Kayannie, Muralappie, Milkappa Road, Crane Road, and Narcoonah.
The line was closed on 4 March 1963, and the way between Balhannah and Oakbank has mostly returned to private landowners. [3]
This former railway is in the jurisdiction of the Adelaide Hills Council, which in 2003 commissioned a feasibility study into the best use of the land. The report recommended it be converted to a rail trail, with which the council agreed but considered beyond their means to implement. However, since that time, the development of a rail trail led to the opening of the Amy Gillett Bikeway in 2010, named in honour of the late Amy Gillett, a South Australian-born Olympic cyclist who had died in 2005. [3] As of 2015, the conversion had reached from Balhannah to Mount Torrens.
Station | Image | Opened | Additional information |
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Mount Pleasant | 1918 | Terminus; closed 1963 | |
Birdwood | 1918 | Closed 1963 | |
Mount Torrens | 1918 | Closed 1963 | |
Charleston | 1918 | Closed 1963 | |
Woodside | 1918 | Closed 1963 | |
Oakbank | 1918 | Closed 1963 | |
Balhannah | 1883 | Former junction station on the Adelaide-Wolseley line. Closed 1963 |
Adelaide Hills Council is a local government area in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. It is in the hills east of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It extends from the South Para Reservoir in the north, to the Mount Bold Reservoir in the south.
Birdwood, originally named Blumberg, is a town in the Adelaide Hills area of South Australia, around 44 km (27 mi) from Adelaide city centre. It is located in the local government areas of the Adelaide Hills Council and the Mid Murray Council.
Balhannah is a town in the Adelaide Hills about 30 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was established in 1839 as a farming community by James Turnbull Thomson, who built the first hotel. The town soon grew to incorporate two once adjoining towns: Gilleston and Blythetown, named for James Blythe, another Scottish settler.
The first railway in colonial South Australia was a line from the port of Goolwa on the River Murray to an ocean harbour at Port Elliot, which first operated in December 1853, before its completion in May 1854.
Amy Elizabeth Gillett was an Australian track cyclist and rower who represented Australia in both sports. She was killed when a driver crashed into the Australian squad of cyclists with whom she was training in Germany. The Amy Gillett Foundation was established in order to fund road safety programs and provide scholarships for young female cyclists.
This is a Timeline of South Australian history.
Mount Pleasant is a town situated in the Barossa Council, just north of the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia, 55 kilometres east-north-east of the state capital, Adelaide. It is located in the Barossa Council and Mid Murray Council local government areas, and is at an altitude of 440 metres above sea level. Rainfall in the area averages 687 mm per annum.
Mount Torrens is a town in the eastern Adelaide Hills region of South Australia, 46 kilometres east-north-east of the state capital, Adelaide and 8 km east of Lobethal. It is located in the Adelaide Hills Council and the Mid Murray Council local government areas. At the 2006 census, Mount Torrens had a population of 337.
Woodside is a town in the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia. The town is between Balhannah and Lobethal, 37 kilometres (23 mi) from the state capital, Adelaide. Mount Barker is also nearby.
Oakbank is a town in the Adelaide Hills, east of Adelaide in South Australia. It is in the Adelaide Hills Council area. At the 2006 census, Oakbank had a population of 473.
The Bridgewater railway line is a former passenger railway service on the Adelaide to Wolseley line in the Adelaide Hills. It was served by suburban services from Adelaide. On 26 July 1987, the service was curtailed to Belair and renamed Belair railway line. In 1995, the Adelaide-Wolseley line was converted to standard gauge as part of the One Nation infrastructure program, disconnecting the abandoned Bridgewater line stations from the broad gauge suburban railway system.
The Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival is a horse-racing meeting held over two days by the Oakbank Racing Club at the Oakbank Racecourse located in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. The carnival is a mixture of flat and jumping races, with two and four jump races on day one and two feature jumping races on day two.
Balhannah railway station is a disused railway station on the Adelaide-Wolseley line. The station is in the Adelaide Hills town of Balhannah, and is located 45.8 kilometres from Adelaide station at an elevation of 339 metres.
The Holdfast Bay railway line was a railway in western Adelaide, built in 1880 to compete with the Adelaide, Glenelg & Suburban Railway Company. The line started at the Adelaide railway station, on the northern edge of the central business district, and proceeded to the northern edge of Mile End, South Australia immediately to the west of the city. From there the line headed south-west to the seaside suburb of Glenelg.
Ambleside railway station was located about 43.5 kilometres from Adelaide station, on the Adelaide-Wolseley line, in the Adelaide Hills suburb of Balhannah, at an elevation of 318 metres.
Charleston is a small town in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. It is situated on the Onkaparinga Valley Road between Woodside and Mount Torrens, on the main route from the Adelaide Hills to the Barossa Valley, and 3 km south-east of Lobethal. Charleston is very close to the source of the River Onkaparinga.
Transitplus was a privately owned public transport company which operated bus services from the South Australian capital Adelaide, to the Adelaide Hills, mainly Mount Barker area. It is part of the Adelaide Metro network. It was a joint venture between TransAdelaide, which also operates the train system in Adelaide and Australian Transit Enterprises. Transitplus was based in Aldgate in the Adelaide Hills and had two depots located in Aldgate and Mount Barker.
The Amy Gillett Bikeway or Amy Gillett Rail Trail or Amy Gillett Pathway is a shared path in the Adelaide Hills on part of the alignment of the former Mount Pleasant railway line. It is a 17 kilometres (11 mi) sealed path suitable for recreational cycling, walking and horse riding. The trail is named after Australian track cyclist and rower Amy Gillett.
The Hundred of Talunga is a cadastral hundred of the County of Adelaide, South Australia, spanning the Torrens Valley in the Adelaide Hills. It was proclaimed by Governor Frederick Robe in 1846 and named for an indigenous term thought to mean 'waterhole'.