The Balaklava–Moonta railway line was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network. It ran across the top of the Yorke Peninsula.
History
The first part to be built was a horse-drawn tramway between the port at Wallaroo and mines near Kadina in 1862, followed by mines near Moonta in 1866. This was originally constructed as 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) gauge.
A separate isolated horse-drawn tramway was constructed to deliver grain from the plains east of Port Wakefield in the areas of Balaklava, Halbury and Hoyle's Plains (now Hoyleton) to that port. It opened in 1869. The section from Hoyleton to Balaklava eventually became part of the Hamley Bridge-Gladstone railway line when that line reached Gladstone in 1894.
The 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge line from Port Wakefield reached a new junction with the Kadina–Brinkworth railway line at Kadina and opened on 9 October 1878. It continued to Wallaroo on a new track adjacent to the older broad gauge track. The line from Kadina to Barunga Gap had started construction from the Kadina end in 1877
On 1 August 1927, the line was converted from 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) to 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) broad gauge. A junction at Kadina connected to the Kadina–Brinkworth railway line. The section from Kadina to Wallaroo was converted to dual gauge broad and standard gauges on 2 December 1982 after the Adelaide–Port Augusta railway line was converted to standard gauge.
The section from Balaklava to Paskeville closed on 4 April 1984, followed by the Wallaroo to Moonta section on 23 July 1984. The broad gauge section from Kadina to Wallaroo also closed on 23 July 1984, but the standard gauge line remained open until 3 March 1993. The Paskeville to Kadina section closed on 14 March 1990. After the closure of the railways, part of the line was used by the Lions Club of Yorke Peninsula Railway for heritage tourist services, but the operations stopped in 2009.
The line between Wallaroo and Kadina has since been pulled up and replaced with the Copper Coast Rail Trail and retail stores on both ends.
References
- South Australia. Chief Engineer for Railways; Vaughan, A. (Alfred); South Australia. Surveyor-General's Office (1910), Map shewing lines of railways in South Australia, Novr. 1910, Surveyor General's Office, retrieved 25 February 2016
- "PORT WAKEFIELD RAILWAY". The South Australian Advertiser. Vol. XII, no. 3385. South Australia. 21 August 1869. p. 2. Retrieved 24 September 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
- "THE PORT WAKEFIELD AND HOYLE'S PLAINS TRAMWAY, AND THE DISTRICT THROUGH WHICH IT PASSES". The Express and Telegraph. Vol. VI, no. 1, 808. South Australia. 27 November 1869. p. 2 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved 24 September 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
- "THE PORT WAKEFIELD AND KADINA RAILWAY". South Australian Register. Vol. XLIII, no. 9953. South Australia. 8 October 1878. p. 6. Retrieved 24 September 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
- "THE KADINA AND BARUNGA RAILWAY". The Express and Telegraph. Vol. XV, no. 4, 301. South Australia. 23 May 1878. p. 2 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved 24 September 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
- Callaghan, WH (2002). "Horse and Steam, Wheat and Copper". Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin (January, February, 2002): 9–27, 46–63.
- Quinlan, Howard; Newland, John (2000). Australian Railway Routes 1854 - 2000. Redfern: Australian Railway Historical Society. pp. 56–58. ISBN 0 909650 49 7.
- "Copper Coast Rail Trail – Rail Trails Australia". Retrieved 30 April 2022.