The Broken Hill to Port Pirie Railway
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- čas přidán 12. 10. 2023
- Let’s explore the route of the old narrow-gauge railway from Broken Hill in NSW to Port Pirie in South Australia.
If you’d like to see more videos about Gladstone, Peterborough, and Port Pirie - here’s the links:
Peterborough to Quorn: • Rails Around the Flind...
Gladstone to Wilmington: • Gladstone to Wilmingto...
Port Pirie: • Port Pirie - One Town ...
One of the things I do is follow abandoned railway lines all over South Australia. NSW and Victorian lines are also in the works.
Subscribe for much more to come.
Check my library for what I've already covered.
Is there anything you'd like me to explore? Let me know in the comments.
In 1875, the South Australian Railways built a narrow-gauge line from Port Pirie to Gladstone. This was extended to Cockburn in 1888. It was around this time that the mining boom began in earnest in Broken Hill. Port Pirie is closer to Broken hill than Sydney but the NSW colonial government wouldn’t let the SA authorities to extend their line beyond the border, and they weren’t going to build a line there themselves. The solution to this was the Silverton Tramway Company which connected Broken Hill with the SAR at Cockburn.
The line was the busiest single track railway in the world between 1911 and 1914. In 1923 it was recorded that 102 trains passed in and out of the Peterborough station during a 24 hour period.
A new standard gauge line opened 1970 with parts of the line on a different alignment.
The Adelaide to Port Augusta line was converted to standard gauge in 1982 and the junction with the Broken Hill line was moved east to Crystal Brook.
The main traffic these days is freight between the east and west coast along with plenty of minerals and ore. The only passenger service is the Indian Pacific.
CREDITS:
Lionel Noble Collection: lionelnoble.com/
Denisbin on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/8213479...
Indian Pacific at Broken Hill - Image by Rob Chandler www.flickr.com/photos/9614763...
creativecommons.org/licenses/... - Zábava
Love the history so much going on and yet we are blind ,we can’t see a thing …These old places warms my soul and mind ,we have to preserve them at all cost ..Thanx for taking time to show us cheers ❤️🙏👍🦘🇦🇺🧌
Well said! Thanks for watching and commenting.
Something I have always liked about Railways.
The amazing amount of work that goes into to building Railway lines that seem to go on forever.
The amount of work involved is an amazing piece of work.
Of course Railway lines compare well to the amazing Highways we take for granted as we travel from one place to the next.
It's only when you watch a video like this that you can take some time to see the work that has taken place over many years to make this all happen👍👍
Exactly! Contemplating these changes over centuries is endlessly interesting. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Brilliant video.
Many thanks!
Thanks again for the excellent presentation. My grandfather was a guard on the ore train in the 20s to 40s and he lived at peterborough. Dad told me of the swaggies in the 30s who used to (illegally) hitch a ride on the train as it slowed round turns. Grandad told them to keep their heads down or he’d kick them off.
Memories like these add so much to my understanding, which is why I make these vids. Thanks so much, Mark.
Magic Mike does it again. Love it.
I like the drone shot where the bird of prey was eyeing of your mini 3 pro🦅
I turned and ran the drone straight home!
2:00 “It’s pretty remote!” And the flies are a nightmare!
yep. bloody flies.
Great presentation Mike, enjoyed it !
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thoroughly enjoying your clips, the research you put in must be exhausting. So now I'm subscribed. Great work.
Welcome aboard!
Fantastic Mike loved it amazing places i remember. The way this world is headed there might be a land grab just to get way from it all lolo
Whole lotta land out that way, Max. Country looks good now but we're about due for a drought I reckon. The outback is harsh but it never broke the railway.
Thanks I enjoyed that - the gracious old buildings and the wonderful inland trees. 40 years or so since I travelled that route (by car).
Thanks for watching and commenting.
Actually Mad Max was shot in Victoria, Port Germein in South Australia has been the location of movies including Robbery under arms. Port Germein is highly scenic so it follows.
Mad Max two was filmed partly at Silverton
Indeed it was.
Amazing part of the country! That fruit fly stop is new though. I love the transition from the desert to the Flinders - stunning! Well done mate!
Thanks heaps for watching and your comments, Ken.
Cracking video of the outback, enjoyed it very much, was hoping you would explain how "Dead Man's Hill" got its name? Peterborough a great little town with friendly people, a town doing it tough, I enjoyed my visit there and full of railway history.
Thanks! You know I was going to tell the story but it wasn't a long one. Story goes an unidentified man was found deceased there just up the hill from the line by train crews. Nobody knows who he was or due to the remote location (even more remote back then), how he even got there.
From Geocaching site:
Story 1 - Swagman
A swagman was found dead near the railway line and the fettlers buried him on this hill.
Like the Government Gazettes, sometimes the Public Trustee Intestate Records held by State records reveal the lonely burial and just like their counterpart, they rarely give the detail needed to find the grave site!
The unknown male buried six miles northwest of Yunta is reported in such a way. Usually these entries are supported by parallel entries in other records.
Public Trustee Intestate Records GRG 33/1 I 3578
Found 28 May 1906 skeleton wearing a truss; buried on spot; possessions - £0/6/11, 1 watch & chain, 1 pocket knife, 1 pair spectacles, 1 single barrel gun with timber parts rotted away, old black pipe, all clothes scattered & rotten; no inquest; reported by Mannahill Police.
Incidentally, this event has no Death Certificate as only a Burial Order was issued. Technically the magistrate should have arranged to forward proceedings on to the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, but clearly in this case this never eventuated. Searchers can find a number of notices in Government Gazettes reminding readers of the need to procure Death certificates indicating that this was a common problem. To date the author has located 219 unregistered deaths in South Australia which are recorded in other official records.
Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 - 1912), Friday 25 May 1906, page 1
ANOTHER BUSH TRAGEDY
M.C. Campbell, of Mannahill, has reported to the Acting Commissioner of Police (Mr. G. L. Reed) that the remains of a man had been found in the Teetulpa Ranges. The clothes had rotted away, and the skeleton appeared to have been Iying on the spot for about 10 years. Beside the skeleton were a watch and chain, a pocket, knife, a pipe, and the remains of a purse with 6/11 in silver and copper. The coins were black with exposure. A billycan, a pannikin, a flask of powder, and a single barrelled muzzle-loading gun and a pair of spectacles were found a few yards away. From a minute examination of the skeleton the constable concluded that the man had been a cripple. Inquiries in the district elicited no knowledge of the corpse. No inquest was held.
Story 2 - Railway fettler/ganger
From a worker who was stationed in the Peterborough division from the early 60s to the early 80s the story about the cross on Deadman's Hill is as follows:
A fettler died while working on the track at Deadman's Hill in the middle of summer around the turn of last century (early 1900s). As they did not have means to transport or keep the body in those days and he apparently had no relatives he was given a christen burial on the hill.
The South Australian Railways and later Australian National painted the cross every year.
In recent years a retired train driver from Pt Pirie took it on himself to go to the site and restore the cross.
Thanks for sharing, Mike. A great video and I enjoy the "then and now" photos.
Thanks for watching, Richard.
As a boy i spent two weekends out of four at the hill .Thank you for sharing
Nice town once you get used to the isolation. Thanks for watching.
Great video! Much enjoyed! Cheers from Wagga.
Great video. At Cutana you flew the drone over the start of the branch line to Radium Hill. Are you planning to follow route of the old line out to Radium Hill at some stage?
Thanks! 🙏
It'd be interesting to follow the old branch to Radium Hill. I did some research but Radium Hill looks all locked up (private property) these days.
Very interesting video. Coming from WA where the gauge was 3ft 6 inch everywhere excluding the 4ft 8/1/2 across the Nullabor.
I found the video was confusing with the mentions of narrow gauge. Was that 4ft 8 1/2 over the broad gauge ???? in SA and Vic. It was not made clear which was which. Can you clarify if possible and then you mentioned 3 different gauges in one place. Cheers
😊 It sure is confusing! South Australia was a dogs breakfast of railway gauges.
The Broken Hill line began as narrow gauge and was converted to standard. Many SA lines began as narrow gauge and were upgraded. The SAR network was largely broad gauge though with a few narrow gauge lines strewn around, so there were places with all three gauges at varying times. Port Pirie and Gladstone are two examples.
South Australia decided it was easier to have no lines at all, aside from the interstate standard gauge lines. Things are much less confusing for potential regional rail travelers in SA now that there's nowhere to go.
Cheers for watching!
Full credits Mike a lot of time and work effort put into this cheers mate
I'm havin fun. I love it!
A very good video. . . , .annoying music, though!
Thanks for watching, John. :)