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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 6 (October 1, 1929)

Opening of Australia's First Railway

Opening of Australia's First Railway.

The line was completed and opened for traffic on 13th September, 1854, being the first railway opened in Australia. (The first railway was under construction in New South Wales, but was not opened for traffic until 25th September, 1855.)

Making Railway History In New Zealand. The railhead at Ohakune during the construction of the Main Trunk Line, North Island, New Zealand.

Making Railway History In New Zealand.
The railhead at Ohakune during the construction of the Main Trunk Line, North Island, New Zealand.

Owing to the non-arrival of engines from England, orders were placed with a local firm for the construction of a locomotive (it is claimed that this was the first built in the Southern Hemisphere), but it turned out to be a partial failure. An article which appeared in a contemporary newspaper gives an amusing account of the opening ceremony:—

“Sir Charles Hotham and Lady Hotham and a considerable number of distinguished officials having taken their places in the train, which contained only four carriages, the signal was given to proceed. The steam was turned on, but the ‘iron horse’ would not budge an inch. Great was the dismay depicted on the faces of the engineer and driver. The valve was opened to its widest extent, and the panting of the overladen ‘steam horse’ was quite alarming. The band of the 40th struck up a merry tune to hide the confusion, but still the train would not move. Accordingly a whole host of policemen and railway porters set to work and pushed it along the line by main force for a hundred yards, when it again came to a dead stop. More police then came on, and a stout gentleman in a dress coat, ready for the banquet, came behind and applied his shoulders vigorously to the buffer of the last carriage, and, at last, by slow degrees, the train moved amid shouts of laughter from the assembled thousands in Flinders Street.”

For some time passengers only were carried on this historic line, and even this traffic was suspended for a whole month pending the arrival of locomotives from England.

In March, 1856, the Company obtained an Act enabling it to construct a short branch railway to St. Kilda on the Bay, and this was opened for traffic on 13th May, 1857. The Company subsequently acquired several short private lines from Melbourne to the Bay, and became known as the “Melbourne and Hobson's Bay United Railway Company,” possessing 16 1/2 miles of railway. In 1878, the Government purchased the Company's properties (these being then the last private lines existing in the Colony), for the sum of £1,320,820, but the lines were not handed over to Government control until 1st July, 1879.