Dry Creek to Stockade (Yatala prison) rail line from 1857 killed off when Gepps Cross abattoirs shuts in 1995
A South Australian Railways map showing the full Dry Creek to Stockade railway line route in Adelaide's north. The closure of the Gepps Cross Abattoirs and Livestock Markets saleyards in 1995 was a fatal blow to the line.
Image courtesy Wikipedia
The Dry Creek to Stockade railway line in Adelaide’s north was opened in June 1, 1857, to carry stone from quarries behind The Stockade – later renamed Yatala Labour Prison.
Prisoners from The Stockade quarried the stone from outcrops of pre-Cambrian rocks in the deep gully that was part of the Dry Creek watercourse. The Dry Creek to Stockade line was opened on the same date as another of South Australia’s oldest railway lines: the Adelaide to Smithfield section of what later was extended to Gawler.
In the 20th Century, the Dry Creek to Stockade line took on a new freight significance. The line was a factor in deciding the site for the Gepps Cross abattoirs, the ambitious project to have all meat consumed in Adelaide metropolitan area to be processed and delivered hygienically in one centralised plant. This replaced the slaughter house and Adelaide city’s western suburbs and the many private slaughter houses attached to butcher shops within the city centre and some suburbs.
The Metropolitan Abattoirs Board, representing Adelaide municipal councils, originally ran the 600-acres complex built at a cost of £350,000. The abattoirs’ role broadened in 1933 when processing meat for export was transferred from Port Adelaide to Gepps Cross. A new Export Siding for the railway line was built in 1937 to deliver sheep and lambs direct to Gepps Cross. The railway line also took on carrying passengers as a suburb for abattoirs workers, with a school for their children, grew. The Abattoirs station and suburb – with a school – was later renamed Pooraka.
The terminus station, Stockade, was closed in 1961. The line was cut back to Northfield station and the surplus land was sold. The last passenger trains to Northfield ran in 1987.
Livestock continued to be delivered by rail to the Gepps Cross Abattoirs and Livestock Markets saleyards until they closed in 1995. The line’s stations were then demolished and the track was lifted. An 18-metre section of the historic double-headed rail and chairs, used on the far eastern end of the Northfield Line, was recovered and displayed in the main pavilion at the National Railway Museum at Port Adelaide.
After the line was closed, passenger services previously operated from Adelaide to Northfield were cut back to terminate at Dry Creek,That stopped in 2008.
The triangle junction where the original Dry Creek to Stockade line joined to the Gawler line was used by South Australian Railways successor TransAdelaide as a storage area for rails, sleepers and maintenance equipment until 2009. It was replaced by the new railcar depot built at Dry Creek to replace the depot on the southern side of Adelaide Railway Station yards. The depot also took over the site vacated in 1995 by the Australian Railway Historical Society’s South Australian division that operated the SteamRanger on the Victor Harbor line as a working railway museum.
The dual-gauge track from the triangle junction north to Dry Creek North Yard, running through the former sheep-loading area, was leased by the South Australian government to Genesee & Wyoming Australia freight carriers to store some standard-gauge rolling stock before construction before new railcar depot was built. The former siding and sheep loading area became part of the new rail depot complex.
