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Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, 223 km (139 mi) north of the state capital, Adelaide. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of the Mid North region of South Australia. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South Australia, and is currently the second most important and second busiest port in SA.
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.
Rail transport in the Australian state of South Australia is provided by a number of railway operators who operate over the government-owned railway lines. The network consists of 1435 mm standard gauge links to other states, the 1600 mm broad gauge suburban railways in Adelaide, a freight-only branch from Dry Creek to Port Adelaide and Pelican Point, a narrow-gauge gypsum haulage line on the Eyre Peninsula, and both copper–gold concentrate and coal on the standard-gauge line in the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor north of Tarcoola.
The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. As the only rail freight corridor between Western Australia and the eastern states, the line is economically and strategically important. The railway includes the world's longest section of completely straight track.
The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australia and Port Augusta to Darwin railways. In 1975, all assets were acquired by the Australian National Railways Commission, branded as Australian National Railways and subsequently Australian National, trademarked as AN.
Rail gauges in Australia display significant variations, which has presented an extremely difficult problem for rail transport on the Australian continent since the 19th century. As of 2022, there are 11,914 kilometres (7,403 mi) of narrow-gauge railways, 18,007 kilometres (11,189 mi) of standard gauge railways and 2,685 kilometres (1,668 mi) of broad gauge railways. In the 19th century, each of the colonies of Australia adopted their own gauges.
Bowmans is a locality in South Australia's Mid North. At the 2006 census, Bowmans had a population of 203. It is named after R and C Bowman who were "pastoralists in area."
Redhill is a town in the Mid North of South Australia adjacent to the Broughton River.
The Broken Hill railway line, extending 801 kilometres from Orange, New South Wales to Broken Hill, is now part of the transcontinental rail corridor from Sydney to Perth.
The Adelaide–Port Augusta railway line is the main route for northbound rail traffic out of Adelaide, South Australia. The line, 315 kilometres long, is part of the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor and the Sydney–Perth rail corridor.
Port Pirie Junction railway station was located in the city of Port Pirie in South Australia.
Coonamia railway station was a "provisional stopping place" for passenger trains in the rural locality of the same name, 5.0 km (3.1 mi) by rail south-east of the centre of the city of Port Pirie, South Australia. It was operational for two separate periods:
Port Augusta railway station is a railway station located on the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line in Port Augusta, South Australia.
Ellen Street railway station was the second of six stations that operated successively between 1875 and the early 2010s to serve the rural maritime town of Port Pirie, 216 km (134 mi) by rail north of Adelaide, South Australia. Soon after construction of the line towards Gladstone began in 1875, an impromptu passenger service commenced. The inaugural station, Port Pirie South, was 800 metres from the centre of the town. Since two tracks had already been laid down the middle of Ellen Street to the wharves, a small corrugated iron shed was erected as a ticket and parcels office. The street-side location was unusual for the South Australian Railways. In 1902, when passenger traffic had increased greatly, a stone building was erected in a striking Victorian Pavilion style. After the tracks were removed in 1967 and the station closed, the building's design assured its retention as a museum of the National Trust of South Australia.
Port Pirie railway station (Mary Elie Street) was the fifth of six railway stations for passengers that operated at various times from 1876 to serve the small maritime town (later city) of Port Pirie, 216 kilometres (134 miles) by rail north of Adelaide, South Australia. As with several of Port Pirie's other stations before it, the station was built to accommodate a change of track gauge on railway lines leading into the town.
Solomontown railway station was one of a total of six stations that operated at various times between 1876 and the early 2010s to serve the rural maritime town of Port Pirie, 216 km (134 mi) by rail north of Adelaide, South Australia. It was opened in 1911 as the town's third narrow-gauge station. It was closed in 1967, when narrow-gauge passenger services ceased.
Long Plains railway station was located on the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line serving the small township of Long Plains in South Australia.
Bowmans railway station was located at the junction of the Balaklava-Moonta railway line and the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line in the town of Bowmans, South Australia.
Snowtown railway station was located at the junction of the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line and the Kadina-Brinkworth railway line in the town of Snowtown, South Australia.
References
- ↑ "REDHILL RAILWAY OPENING". Observer . Vol. LXXXII, no. 6, 081. South Australia. 15 August 1925. p. 62. Retrieved 31 July 2019– via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ "Long Plains railway station". History Trust of South Australia. 2024. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
- 1 2 Ramsay, John (2008). "The History of the Australian National Railways Commission, Part 1: 1978–1990". Proceedings of the 20nn Convention. Modelling the Railways of South Australia. Adelaide.
- ↑ Redhill, SA