Trains & TramsTourism

SteamRanger keeps alive Goolwa-Victor Harbor cockle train line with 1854 origins as Australia's oldest

SteamRanger keeps alive Goolwa-Victor Harbor cockle train line with 1854 origins as Australia's oldest
An historic SteamRanger steam locomotive pulling the cockle train between Goolwa and Victor Harbor along the Fleurieu Peninsula coast.
Image courtesy SteamRanger Heritage Railway

The cockle tourist train, operated by SteamRanger Heritage Railway and running up to 140 days a year between Goolwa and Victor Harbor on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula, kept alive Australia’s oldest iron railway, to link the River Murray and the wharfs at Port Elliot and later Victor Harbor. The origins of the line  – Australia's first – were for a horse-drawn tram between Goolwa and Port Elliot from 1854.

The line was built for the River Murray trade of the 19th Century but this role diminished after a more direct line was built from Adelaide through Kapunda to Morgan. The original line from the Goolwa jetty headed to the centre of Port Elliot. Port Elliot's lack of shelter and shallow achorage forced port activity to be moved to Victor Harbor and the railway line extended there and opened in 1864. The line was extended north to Strathalbyn from Middleton in 1869 and linked to Adelaide in 1884. 

The cockle train’s name is derived from early days of colonial settlement when locals would take a horse-drawn train to Goolwa to make a day’s outing of collecting cockles from the sandy beaches near the River Murray mouth. It operated along the Fleurieu Peninsula coast with a steam locomotive in school holidays, over Easter and every Sunday and Wednesday with historic diesel locomotives or railcars.

SteamRanger Heritage Railway, the only group operating broad gauge steam locomotives, iwas  run by volunteers of the South Australian division of the Australian Historical Railway Society. Before 1995, SteamRanger was based at Dry Creek in Adelaide’s northern suburbs and home to the main road-rail freight depots. It operated the Southern Encounter operated from Adelaide railway station through the Mounty Lofty Ranges to Victor Habour plus other special train runs on the broad gauge network to places such as Burra and Nuriootpa.

With the shutting of the country rail network and the Adelaide-to-Wolseley section of the Adelaide-Melbourne line converted to standard gauge in 1995, the broad-gauge line between Mount Barker Junction and Victor Harbor was left isolated. The previous Australian National operator had declared the Mount Barker Junction-Strathalbyn section unsafe in 1989 but it was renewed with state government funding and SteamRanger service services resumed with its volunteers maintaining its trains and the rail line.

In 2023, SteamRanger Heritage Railway received $8.9 million from the South Australian government for much-needed remediation works. The historic attraction, rolling out 70,000 passenger journeys each year, ran from Mount Barker to Victor Harbor and included the popular cockle train. Remediation works were carried out on bridges at Currency Creek, Watson's Gap and Hindmarsh River, as well as Tookayerta Creek and Finniss River.

Other related ADELAIDE AZ articles

The zaniness of the The Cube's exterior, in the serene setting of McLaren Vale wine country south of Adelaide, was matched by its art and quirks inside. 
Tourism >
Zany Cube in McLaren Vale wine country, south of Adelaide, defies the critics as outlandish draw for mass visitors
READ MORE+
South Australian Railways passengers at the busy Semaphore station on Semaphore Road in 1911.
Trains & Trams >
Semaphore railway line from 1878 shut down with South Australian Railways and all its country services in 1978
READ MORE+
Twenty-Third Street Distillery and visitor centre at Renmark on the River Murray in South Australia. The complex was a rebirth of the distillery run by Renmark grape growers from 2016. The customs house shown at bottom left was a memory from the 20th Century when a team of customs officials was permanently on site. Inset: Two stills at the new distillery.
Tourism >
Twenty-Third Street Distillery at Renmark, South Australia, a 2016 revival of the growers' venture century before
READ MORE+
A welcoming crowd in Port Pirie's main thoroughfare Ellen Street around 1920 for the train carrying the South Australian governor's wife, Marie (Carola Franciska Roselyne d'Erlanger) Galway,  who had achieved celebrity status in the state.
Regions >
Broad gauge line to Port Pirie and its main Ellen Street station in 1937; later links Adelaide to standard gauge lines
READ MORE+
Long-time Adelaide Municipal Tramways Trust general manager William ("W.T.G") Goodman. Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Government >
MTT general manager William Goodman sees Adelaide tram network grow but struggling with lack of resources
READ MORE+
An Adelaide tram traverses the new eastern section of the North Terrace line.
Government >
South Australia's transit firm SeaLInk part of joint venture to run Adelaide's trams in 2020 privatisation
READ MORE+

 

 
©2025 Adelaide AZ | Privacy | Terms & Disclaimer | PWA 1.1.58