Eastern Goldfields Railway

Eastern Goldfields Railway
The Prospector at Kellerberrin with the Goldfields water pipeline in the foreground & the CBH grain receival point in the background
Overview
Termini	Northam Kalgoorlie
Operation
Owner	Public Transport Authority
Operator(s)	Brookfield Rail
Events
1 July 1894: opened Northam to Southern Cross	1 July 1896: opened Southern Cross to Boorabbin 1 January 1897: opened Boorabbin to Kalgoorlie February 1966: Bellevue to Northam added gauge and changed route 1968: Northam to Kalgoorlie, added standard gauge, making it dual gauge and changed route
Technical
Line length	373 kilometres
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) dual gauge
Old gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)

The Eastern Goldfields Railway was built in the 1890s by the Western Australian Government Railways to connect Perth with the Eastern Goldfields at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie.

The Eastern Railway opened in stages from Perth to Northam in the 1890s, and the Eastern Goldfields Railway extended this line through semi-desert to the Eastern Goldfields.

It opened in stages between 1894 and 1897.

The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme pipeline was later constructed along the railway line. The chief engineer for both the railway and the pipeline was C. Y. O'Connor.

In October 1917, the Commonwealth Railways' standard gauge Trans-Australian Railway from Port Augusta was completed through to Kalgoorlie, making it a break-of-gauge station.

At Kalgoorle lines branch off north to Malcolm and Leonora; and south to Esperance via the Esperance line. The Malcolm-Laverton branch was last used in 1957 and closed in 1960.

As part of the Federal Government's program to build a standard gauge line across Australia, and the passing of the Railways (Standard Gauge) Construction Act 1961 work commenced on gauge converting the line to dual gauge with a new alignment further north of the existing line built between Southern Cross and Kalgoorlie.