Port Augusta railway station | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Location | Stirling Road, Port Augusta |
| Coordinates | 32°29′37″S137°46′02″E / 32.4937°S 137.7672°E Coordinates: 32°29′37″S137°46′02″E / 32.4937°S 137.7672°E |
| Line(s) | Adelaide-Port Augusta |
| Platforms | 2 (1 island) |
| Construction | |
| Structure type | Ground |
| Other information | |
| Status | Unstaffed |
Port Augusta railway station is a rail station located on the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line in Port Augusta, South Australia.
In 1878, the first railway line in to Port Augusta was when it became the southern terminus of a proposed line to Darwin. Under South Australian ownership the narrow gauge railway, known as the Great Northern Railway, was extended in stages and reached Oodnadatta in 1891. [1] In 1882, this line also connected Port Augusta to Adelaide when the Peterborough–Quorn railway line was completed, as there was already railway from Peterborough to Adelaide. [2] The original Port Augusta railway station was on Commercial Road, and is now heritage listed and used as an art gallery. [3] The railway continued through what later became railyards, through the original station, and down Commercial Road to the wharf area. [2]
The South Australian Government subsequently made offers to several syndicates to construct a line north from Oodnadatta to Pine Creek on the land grant system, however negotiations were unsuccessful and Oodnadatta remained the railhead. The line passed to Commonwealth ownership on 1 January 1911, but continued to be operated by the South Australian Railways until the Commonwealth Railways took over operations on 1 January 1926. An extension of the railway to Alice Springs was completed in 1929. [1] [4]
Between 1913 and 1917, the standard gauge Trans-Australian Railway was built from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, entering the town from another direction and the station from the other end. Thus Port Augusta became a break of gauge station until the standard gauge line was extended to Port Pirie Junction in 1937. [2] The new station provided for transfer of passenger and goods between trains on the standard gauge line to Kalgoorlie and the narrow gauge line to Oodnadatta and Adelaide (via Peterborough, and another break of gauge at Terowie). The new two-storey station building was 160 by 48 feet (49 m × 15 m) and provided 1,000 feet (300 m) platform for standard gauge trains and 720 feet (220 m) platform for narrow gauge trains. [5]
In 1957, a new standard gauge Stirling North to Marree line was built via Leigh Creek, replacing the line via Quorn. In 1972, the Whyalla line opened to Whyalla to serve Whyalla Steelworks. In 2001, the narrow gauge line between Port Augusta and Quorn was re-opened by the Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society. [6]
Port Augusta has long been an important railway centre, with Downer Rail having a plant in the city. [7] [8]
Journey Beyond's The Ghan and Indian Pacific services pass Port Augusta on the Adelaide-Port Augusta railway line but do not stop at the station. [9] [10]
Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a seaport, it is now a road traffic and railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about 322 kilometres (200 mi) north of the state capital, Adelaide. The suburb of Port Augusta West is located on the west side of the gulf on the Eyre Peninsula. Other major industries included, up until the mid-2010s, electricity generation. At June 2018, the estimated urban population was 13,799, having declined at an average annual rate of -0.53% over the preceding five years.
The Ghan is an experiential tourism oriented passenger train service that operates between the northern and southern coasts of Australia, through the cities of Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin on the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor. Operated by Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions, its scheduled travelling time, including extended stops for passengers to do off-train tours, is 53 hours 15 minutes to travel the 2,979 kilometres (1,851 mi). The Ghan has been described as one of the world's great passenger trains.
The Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor is a 2,975 kilometres (1,849 mi) series of south–north transcontinental railway lines in Australia, between the cities of Adelaide and Darwin. Built in stages in the twentieth century, the corridor was completed in 2004 when the Alice Springs to Darwin line opened. The corridor is used by The Ghan passenger train and freight trains operated by One Rail Australia.
Quorn is a small town and railhead in the Flinders Ranges in the north of South Australia, 39 kilometres (24 mi) northeast of Port Augusta. At the 2016 census, the locality had a population of 1,230, of which 1,131 lived in its town centre.
The Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society (PRRPS) is a non-profit railway preservation society and operating museum formed in 1973. Managed and staffed by its volunteer members, it operates heritage steam and diesel trains on the restored 39 kilometre section of track between Quorn and Port Augusta in the southern Flinders Ranges of South Australia.
The former Central Australia Railway, which was built between 1878 and 1929 and closed in 1980, was a 1,241 km (771 mi) 1067 mm narrow gauge railway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A standard gauge line duplicated the southern section from Port Augusta to Maree in 1957 on a new nearby alignment. The entire Central Australia Railway was superseded in 1980 after the standard gauge Tarcoola–Alice Springs Railway was opened, using a new route up to 200 km to the west. A small southern section of the original line between Port Augusta and Quorn has been preserved as the Pichi Richi Tourist Railway.
The rail network in Adelaide, South Australia, consists of four lines and 89 stations, totalling 132 km. It is operated by Keolis Downer under contract from the Government of South Australia, and is part of the citywide Adelaide Metro public transport system.
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 in cases where geography dictated a choice of an alternate port.
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.
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 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. It was absorbed into Australian National in 1975.
The Commonwealth Railways NC class consisted of two diesel-hydraulic locomotives built by Clyde Engineering, Granville, New South Wales in 1956. The Lakewood Firewood Company, Kalgoorlie was the first owner; the Commonwealth Railways purchased them in 1965. They ceased revenue service in the early 1980s.
The Commonwealth Railways NSU class was a class of diesel-electric locomotives built in 1954 and 1955 by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, England, for the Commonwealth Railways for use on the narrow-gauge Central Australia Railway and North Australia Railway.
The NT class were a class of diesel locomotives built by Tulloch Limited, Rhodes for Commonwealth Railways for use on the Central and North Australia Railways between 1965 and 1968.
Peterborough railway station is located on the Crystal Brook-Broken Hill line in Peterborough, South Australia.
Quorn railway station was located on the Central Australia Railway serving the South Australian town of Quorn.
Marree railway station was located on the Central Australia Railway serving the small South Australian outback town of Marree.
The Marree railway line is located in the Australian state of South Australia.
The NDH class railcar is a self propelled diesel-hydraulic railcar designed by Commonwealth Engineering and built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company in England for the Commonwealth Railways, Australia in 1954. They were known as Gloucester railcars.
Media related to Port Augusta railway station at Wikimedia Commons