Victor Harbor railway line

Victor Harbor
Mount Barker station
Overview
Termini	Mount Barker Junction Victor Harbor
Continues from	Adelaide-Wolseley line
Technical
Track gauge	1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
Route map Broad Gauge (Red), Standard Gauge (Blue) km Adelaide-Wolseley line to Adelaide 50.0 Mount Barker Junction Adelaide-Wolseley line to Melbourne 53.0 Littlehampton SA South Eastern Freeway Tunnel 55.1 Mount Barker SteamRanger Depot Western Flat Creek 61.5 Philcox Hill (Closed) 64.0 Bugle Ranges (Closed) Wistow-Strathalbyn Road 70.1 Gemmells (Closed) Angas River 81.5 Strathalbyn Sandergrove (Closed 1973) Milang Line (Closed 1970) 97.0 Finniss Finniss River 99.2 Gilberts Goolwa-Strathalbyn Road 106.7 Currency Creek Currency Creek Goolwa Steamranger Depot Hindmarsh Island Bridge 114.4 Goolwa Oliver Street Hutchinson Street Foster Place Gardiner Street Victor Harbor-Goolwa Road Mindacowie Terrace 122.5 Middleton Basham Beach Road Strangways Terrace Murray Terrace The Strand Rosetta Terrace 125.5 Port Elliot Unnamed rivulet Hindmarsh River Grantley Avenue Eyre Terrace Coral Street 132.0 Victor Harbor Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram to Granite Island

The Victor Harbor railway line is a broad gauge line in South Australia. It branches from the Adelaide to Wolseley line at Mount Barker Junction and then runs south to Victor Harbor.

History

South Australia's first railway venture was the opening of the Goolwa on the Murray River to the ocean harbour at Port Elliot horse tramway in 1854. It was later extended to a safer harbour at Victor Harbor. This line was used to move freight between the shallow-draft vessels navigating the Murray, and coastal and ocean-going vessels, without either having to traverse the narrow and shallow mouth of the river with unpredictable currents. The Goolwa–Port Elliot railway was awarded a Historic Engineering Marker in 1992.^[1]

The line was extended northwards to Strathalbyn in 1869, the connection from Adelaide reaching the town in 1884 and completing the link.^[2] Until 1884, trains south of Strathalbyn were hauled by horse power, but between 1883 and 1885 the section to Currency Creek was rebuilt to steam railway standards.^[3]

Australian National operated freight services on the Strathalbyn to Victor section were withdrawn in 1980 and on the rest of the line from October 1987.^[4][5]

In the early 1980s, Australian National announced that the Victor Harbor line would close, despite enormous public opposition. Several factors were noted for the closure of the line, such as a deteriorating track condition, a long time-consuming route compared with a more direct road journey, and declining passenger numbers.

Over 50,000 return journeys were made during 1977/78, but this dropped to only around 16,000 in 1982/83. The last Australian National passenger service ran on 30 April 1984, when locomotive 942 hauled seven steel cars from Adelaide to Victor Harbor and return.

Despite many people using the service in the last few months leading into the closure, it wasn't enough for passenger services to be retained. The SteamRanger Heritage Railway was established in 1986 to operate tourist trains on the line. In late 1989, Australian National declared the Mount Barker Junction–Strathalbyn section unsafe and SteamRanger operated services from Adelaide to Strathalbyn were cancelled.

That section was eventually renewed during 1990-91 with funding from the State Government. First the lines beyond Strathalbyn were operated by SteamRanger train crews, later extending to the entire line.^[5] In 1995 gauge conversion of the Adelaide to Wolseley line isolated the broad gauge Victor Harbor line off from the rest of the network, and volunteers took full responsibility for maintaining the track from Mount Barker Junction to Victor Harbor.^[5]

References

Further reading

• Harvey, Dean (1992). "The Victor Harbor Line". Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin (July–September): 155–169, 179–195 & 207–220.