Port Melbourne railway line

Port Melbourne
Overview
Type	Melbourne suburban service
Status	Converted to tram route 109
Connecting lines	St Kilda line
Operation
Opened	September 1854
Closed	October 1987
Number of tracks	Double track

The Port Melbourne railway line is a former railway line in Melbourne, Australia. The line was the first significant railway in Australia, and was opened by the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company, to carry passengers arriving in Victoria at Station Pier, and to alleviate the high cost of shipping goods using small vessels up the Yarra River to Melbourne.

Work began on laying the railway in March 1853, under the supervision of the company's Engineer-in-Chief James Moore. Trains were ordered from Robert Stephenson and Company, of the United Kingdom, but the first train was locally built by Robertson, Martin & Smith, because of shipping delays. Australia's first steam locomotive was built in ten weeks and cost £2,700.

The line was opened in September 1854 (three years after the discovery of gold at Ballarat) and ran for 4 km from the Melbourne (or City) Terminus (on the site of modern-day Flinders Street Station), crossing the Yarra River via the Sandridge Bridge, to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne).

The opening of the line occurred during the period of the Victorian gold rush - a time when both Melbourne and Victoria undertook massive capital works, each with its own gala opening. The inaugural journey on the Sandridge line was no exception. According to the Argus newspaper's report of the next day: "Long before the hour appointed ... a great crowd assembled round the station at the Melbourne terminus, lining the whole of Flinders Street". Lieutenant-Governor Charles Hotham and Lady Hotham were aboard the train - which consisted of two first class and one second class carriages - and were presented with satin copies of the railway's timetable and bylaws.

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