Little horse and gravity railway from 1876 takes grain from Mundoora to Port Broughton on South Australia's gulf
The railway line carrying grain from Mundoora in South Australia's mid north to Port Broughton on Spencer Gulf was operated by horses pulling it uphill and using gravity for the downhill run. The grain delivered to Port Broughton was transferred to windjammer vessels using the west-to-east trade winds to take it to Europe.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Among South Australia’s earliest little railways was a narrow (3 feet 6 inches) gauge line serving Port Broughton on South Australia’s eastern Spencer Gulf in an unusual mode.
Opened in March 1876, the railway carried grain from Mundoora 10 miles (16 kilometres) inland to Port Broughton. Ketches carried the grain from the Port Broughton jetty five miles (eight kilometres) kilometres out into the gulf where it loaded onto larger windjammer sail vessels anchored there to carry the grain back to England. The windjammers, taking advantage of the west-to-east trade winds across the Pacific Ocean, continued to call into the gulf until 1949 – seven years after the Port Broughton railway stopped carrying the grain.
Horses originally were used to tow the railway’s empty wagons uphill but the wagons were sent downhill powered by gravity, with a driver operating the brakes. A passenger service on the line continued until 1925. The use of the line for grain traffic continued until 1942. In 1906, Clarence Goode, the South Australian House of Assembly member for the seat of Stanley, proposed using steam or petrol-powered locomotives on the line. During 1926,a Fordon rail tractor displaced using. From 1931, the railways contracted out the service to a private operator.
After railway stopped being used in August 1942, tractor continued to shunt wheat wagons between the station yard and the jetty at Port Broughton until 1949. There was a proposal to convert the line into a railway to connect at Brinkworth on South Australia’s mid north but it was never built.
