Navarre railway line

Navarre railway line is an abandoned railway between Navarre in the Wimmera region of the Australian state of Victoria and Ben Nevis railway station. The town of Navarre is located in the Shire of Northern Grampians and was surveyed in 1855 and renamed after the medieval European Kingdom of Navarre.

Officially opened on May 26, 1914, the line had five stations: Navarre, Tulkara, Landsborough, Joel, Crowlands, and the terminus, Ben Nevis railway station where the line connected with the Avoca railway line. Rolling stock, engines, such as the Victorian Railways Dd class locomotive, drivers and repair crews were supplied from Ararat and the service began by running services three days per week.

In 1911 a Victorian Parliamentary committee made the following recommendation.

The line was to connect with the Ararat - Avoca - Maryborough line with a junction installed at Ben Nevis and there was debate amongst the members of the Committee as to the exact location of the station at Navarre. At this early stage they could already see the possibility of it being extended to the north to Marnoo and St Arnaud.

The line ran through lightly undulating, partly wooded countryside for some 22 miles (36 km). Gold had been found in the region during the 1850s and many of those pioneers who had arrived there at that time remained to establish their own farms and businesses. Planning for the line began some years before its actual construction and changes in its routing were to be inevitable. Originally the line was expected to service the expanding agricultural needs of the region, carrying livestock, wheat and chaff. Although the railway also operated a passenger service, one of the biggest users of the line were timber cutters and for a while six mills operated in the area supplying firewood to connecting stations including Ararat, Ballarat and further to the south-east the capital city of Victoria, Melbourne

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