North Australia Railway


The North Australia Railway, also known as the Palmerston to Pine Creek railway, was a narrow gauge railway in the Northern Territory of Australia which ran from the territory capital of Darwin, once known as Palmerston, to Birdum, just south of Larrimah from 1889 to 1976.

History

In the nineteenth century the Northern Territory was administered by the Government of South Australia. The John Cox Bray Government introduced the Palmerston and Pine Creek Railway Bill in 1883. The £959,300 contract was awarded to C&E Millar of Melbourne on the proviso that they could use coolie labour. The line reached Pine Creek in 1888 and officially opened on 30 September 1889. Singhalese and Indian gangs did the grubbing and earthwork and 3,000 Chinese labourers laid over one kilometre of track per day. A total of 310 bridges and flood openings were built and an interactive map is available at

Commonwealth takeover

The Commonwealth Government took control in 1911. It promised to complete the railway from Adelaide to Darwin but gave no dates.
The line was extended to near Katherine in 1917, and to Birdum in 1929.
In 1930, a mixed train, nicknamed Leaping Lena, ran to an established timetable.
During World War II, Larrimah, nine kilometres north of Birdum, became the effective railhead because, unlike Birdum, it was on the Stuart Highway. The 100-metre bridge across Birdum Creek is still present. There were locomotive turning triangles at both locations. The busiest time for the railway was during World War II. In 1944, as many as 247 trains ran per week.

Proposed extensions

A railway line from Alice Springs to Darwin had been discussed and promised by politicians for many years. A railway between Alice Springs and Birdum was proposed as early as 1918, before the two lines had reached those locations. A private company proposed a railway from Birdum to Bourke, New South Wales in 1932.
Following the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Australian Army surveyed a rail route from Alice Springs to Birdum in 1942 and from Mount Isa, Queensland to Birdum via Tennant Creek in 1943.
A railway from Dajarra, Queensland to Birdum was considered in 1952-53 but the Cabinet decided not to proceed. Construction of a standard gauge railway to Darwin was first seriously proposed in 1965 when construction of a new standard gauge line to Alice Springs was discussed.

Closure and completion

The Federal Government promulgated an order to close the narrow gauge North Australia Railway line on 20 May 1976, with services ceasing on 30 June of that year, as result of the loss of iron ore traffic originating from the Frances Creek operation. Maintenance gangs were withdrawn in December 1977. Heavy floods in 1978 destroyed parts of the railway, effectively eliminating any hope of the railway re-opening. In 1985, some rails and sleepers were lifted and sent to AN Tasrail.
Nearly 20 years later, the AustralAsia Rail Corporation a consortium was formed to build the standard gauge link between Alice Springs and Darwin.
Construction on the new standard gauge line from Alice Springs lasted from July 2001 to 17 September 2003. The first freight train reached Darwin on 17 January 2004 and the first Ghan passenger service ran from Adelaide to Darwin in early February 2004. The line uses 198 kilometers of the original 511 kilometer route between Adelaide River and Emungalan, just north of Katherine; however, the Fergusson River bridge was the only bridge strengthened and re-used.
The Pine Creek railway station is on the National List of Significant Places at the National Trust of Australia. The railway station and its immediate precinct was listed on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate on 21 October 1980 and on the Northern Territory Heritage Register on 6 April 1994.