Trans Australian Railway Line Centenary

Hi Boobook
The short answer is yes.

Things have gone quiet at the moment, but there is a new monument planned, but as with all things, it is hard to get all parties involved, including the railways.

I posted a post a long time ago about this, but all I can say, is keep Tuesday the 17th free next year. It could be used as a National Gathering to show the world that ExplorOz members take seriously these type of history events.

Cheers


Stephen

I've watched those monuments disintegrate over the years, so would love to see something a bit stronger put in their place.
Here are photos of the two monuments from 2010 but the north one blew over as well a year or two later.


There is a huge history that involves that area.
I am thinking about the local aboriginal people and their attitude to the railway as the railway destroyed life as they knew it. To supply water to the railway, many many bores were sunk at Ooldea Soak about 7k N of the railway line in the early 1900's. The bedrock became a sieve and destroyed the area because the Soak would no longer hold water. That Soak was the major trading area for aboriginal people from the coast and from the north - it was the only perennial water source on the edge of the desert. With no water, and loss of their traditional ways, the aboriginal people became dependant on the railway for survival - for food and water. Daisy Bates set herself up there in the 1930's and assisted the aborigines, and after her departure the Uniting Church set up a mission at Ooldea. That mission disappeared in the 1950's when the nuclear testing was being set up nearby at Maralinga, so the aboriginal people were forced to leave their country and those who didn't, suffered the consequences of the nuclear fallout.
I find it a pretty sad piece of history.....and it all started with the railway. But still we can't turn back history.

Very interested in this. My Grandfather worked on the East West as a Ganger (I have a copy of a paybook). I did some time on the pre-stressed sleeper beds in Kalgoorlie 40yrs ago.

Also I organized this at the SA NT border on the Tarcoola Alice line in 1979. Don't have access to these sort of toys these days. That is my son at about 9 months. The rock has the commemorative plaque attached to it. Was at the clip driving ceremony - boy what a party courtesy of Commonwealth Railways of the day.

Stephen L - I have been meaning to talk to you as I have family contacts around your way and have spent time in SA outback (former crow eater). Could you please PM me if interested and we can take it from there.

Regards, Pete_G

Below are links to two sites -

(1) Pictures of a lot of the Trans Line construction (from the State Library of W.A. collections) -

and (2) An article written in 2001 by the Institution of Engineers, Australia, outlining the entire Trans-Australian Railway story.

SLWA photographs collection of Trans Line construction

The above photo link provides access to all the online Trans Line photos held by the SLWA.
To reduce the number of the search results, type "1912 to 1918" under "publish date" in the LH menu.
Then click on "apply" under the dates.
This reduces the numbers of photos found to approximately the construction period, and gives about 3 pages of results.
Opening the photos fully, involves up to 3 or even 4 steps. It's not the most user-friendly system around.

There are many good photos there, including the tracklayers meeting, and the rails being cut to make the join, and the join being made.

One photo that needs a caption correction, is one titled "Steam plough".
The engine pulling the plough (which I think is a scarifier, anyway) is not a steam engine - it's a 1912-1914, 15-25HP Fairbanks Morse Oil Tractor - a rare machine back then, and a much rarer tractor today.

The engineers article is very comprehensive (21 pages) and you need some time to read it all.
A lot of the article covers the politics and decision-making surrounding the railway.

I found the section headed, "Building the Railway" the most interesting part.

I was quite surprised to find, that around 2/3 to 3/4 of the original sleepers were W.A. Karri - treated to resist termite attack.

I have no idea how effective the treatment was, and how durable the Karri sleepers were.
I don't ever recall seeing any old Karri sleepers, from any railway. Jarrah and Wandoo, yes - but never Karri.

Karri is very durable, a stringy, tough timber, that is tough to split - but termites will walk over hot coals to make a meal of it, in its natural state.

The Trans-Australian Railway

Cheers, Ron.

Boobook
I was there last week and have to agree that it is a shame that this part of Australian history has been forgotten by parties involved and that memorial is what it is today. Hope that a more substantial memorial can be errected for the centenary
Maybe because these memorials are not for a person is the reason that it has been negected as when you see the one for Daisey Bates just down the railway line her's willl be there forever.

Murray

I have penciled in time to be there on the day. Couldnt agree more that if this was in th US or anywhere else it would be a significant site.I am hopefull that something will be done about the monument, but whatever, I plan to be there. R