Wheatbelt railway lines of Western Australia

The wheatbelt railway lines of Western Australia are a network of railway lines in Western Australia that have primarily served the Wheatbelt region. Maps of the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) system in the 1930s show that in the main wheatbelt region, any railway line was within 30 miles of the harvest location, facilitating ease of access to rail transport.

In the current railway management systems, many of the operating lines are primarily for the haulage of grain.

In 1905 the report of the Royal Commission into Immigration in Western Australia stated:

All considerable areas of agricultural land must have a 15 mile rail service

In 1947, the Royal Commission into Railway management stated of the 1905 and after era of construction:

... to construct railways in agricultural areas as cheaply as possible, lines were built with 45 lb. rail sections which practically followed the surface of the ground with (a) earth ballasting (b) half-round timber sleepers (c) providing the bare minimum station facilities only

Transport of wheat on the WAGR system was identified by station/siding early in annual reports, as a commodity of importance to the railways.

Early transport of grain was organised through the railways and growers with the Cooperative Wheat Pool of Western Australia as a main player.

The feasibility of bulk handling and storage, and the relationship with the railway networks then in place, was a concern of Westralian Farmers in the 1930s, as well as that of the Western Australian government of the time.

In 1932, five sidings in the Western Australian Government Railway System were the first locations of bulk handling of wheat by rail:

From the time of creation of specific railway branches or sections, most railway lines in the era of the WAGR carried mixed services of freight, and passenger services. Following the decline of passenger services in the 1950s, many branch lines ceased to have specific passenger services and the WAGR road bus services replaced rail passenger facilities.

In the decade of the creation of the brand Westrail, many branch lines had sidings removed, and had ceased to operate as mixed freight lines. They became in many cases oriented to single commodity lines - such as timber, woodchip, iron ore, or grain haulage became the main orientation of many of the branch lines in the narrow gauge network.

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