As I drove east along the Dukes Highway for my last video, I passed through the small towns dotted along the Dukes Highway. For many years, these towns sustained the first intercolonial rail link and played an important role in the development of the region until the closure of their stations and facilities in 1990.
While The Overland still stops at the deserted and run down Bordertown station, and there’s an intermodal facility there (really just a container crane and a fenced off patch of dirt), most of the old infrastructure is abandoned or gone and nearly all traffic rushes through headed for Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth.
This is still an active railway line but I'm not here to go trainspotting. I'm here to check out what’s left of the old infrastructure that once meant so much to the development of Australia.
I’ll even head over to Serviceton to explain the important role that station played from 1889 to 1996.
Let’s dig a little deeper and fly a little higher as we explore the Adelaide to Wolseley line from Tailem Bend to the border.
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Overview:
The Adelaide-Wolseley railway line is a 313 kilometre line that forms the South Australian section of the Melbourne-Adelaide railway.
The line opened from Adelaide to Aldgate in 1883 and later that year to Nairne; to Bordertown in 1886, and across the border to Serviceton in 1887. The track was converted to standard gauge in 1995.
Today the route is mainly served by interstate freight services. Intrastate grain freight services from the Loxton and Pinnaroo ended in July 2015. Grain trains from Tailem Bend and Wolseley do still run from time to time.
Journey Beyond's 'The Overland' is the only non-suburban passenger train, stopping at Murray Bridge and Bordertown.
Including Tailem Bend, this section of the Wolseley line had 16 stations and sidings:
Tailem Bend
Cooke Plains
Coomandook
Yumali
Ki Ki
Coonalpyn
Culburra
Tintinara
Kumorna
Coombe
Banealla
Keith
Brimbago
Wirrega
Cannawigara
Bordertown
Wolseley
Serviceton
IMAGE CREDITS:
State Library of South Australia
Weston Langford Collection: www.westonlangford.com/
GSWRHS Collection: www.flickr.com/photos/gcargee...
30 янв 2024
