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RAIL HISTORY – AUSTRALIA
RAIL HISTORY – AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIAN RAIL HISTORY

INTRODUCTION

Australia’s first rail systems were mostly built when the country consisted of sparsely settled colonies, before they
combined to form a Federation of states in 1901.

Until the middle of the 1800s, people travelled around the colonies of the Australian continent by horse-drawn
transport and by coastal shipping services. From 1854, when the first steam railway between Melbourne and Port
Melbourne started, the railway system of the various colonies developed rapidly. Initially all track and rolling stock
was imported, although by the 1880s most of the equipment was being made locally.
While the railways were operated initially by private
companies, a shortage of speculation capital resulted in the
continued development of the railways being undertaken by
individual colonial governments. The initial purpose of the rail
development was to connect the hinterland with the major
export seaports which, in most cases, were the capital cities.
Planners gave little thought to connecting their railways with
the other rail systems.

By Federation in 1901, all states except Western Australia
were ‘linked’ by rail and more than 20,000 km of track had
REFERENCE New south Wales adopted the European standard gauge of 1435
been laid. sadly, those who envisaged a nation had not
contemplated a national rail network. Three different gauges
had been used.

mm, victoria and south Australia built with the broad Irish gauge of
1600 mm, and Tasmania, queensland, Western Australia and parts of
south Australia used the narrow 1067 mm gauge. For many years, the
different gauges handicapped the effective operation of interstate rail
services.

In 1917, a person wanting to travel from Perth to Brisbane on an east-
west crossing of the continent had to change trains six times.
The independent development of the State rail systems led to significant
incompatibility problems, not only in relation to gauge but also
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equipment and operating practices.
This incompatibility of the state rail systems was brought to a head during World War II when the war effort
required large quantities of goods and personnel to be moved quickly throughout Australia. But it was not
until June 1995 that trains could travel between Brisbane and Perth, via sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide on a
standard gauge track.

By 1970 the situation had improved sufficiently so that a
passenger could remain on the same train on a journey
from Perth to sydney. Three different gauges still exist
in Australia, but the state capitals are now linked by one
uniform gauge.
steam locomotion was used until the 1950s when diesel-
electric locomotives began to take over. steam locomotives
were completely withdrawn in the 1970s, but tourist trips
are still available on scenic routes in New south Wales,
victoria and Tasmania.
suburban electric trains operate in sydney, Melbourne,
Brisbane and Perth.

Reproduced without modification with permission from the Australian Government Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development,
“History Of Rail In Australia” (2015) Infrastructure.gov.au <https://infrastructure.gov.au/rail/trains/history.aspx>.
304 SYDNEY Head Office (02) 9547 1844 Adelaide (08) 8352 8866 Brisbane (07) 3256 6011 Townsville (07) 4728 8756
Darwin (08) 8984 4453 Melbourne (03) 9761 4199 Perth (08) 9354 8544 Port Hedland (08) 9172 1113 Tasmania 0427 423 217