1 July 1896: opened Southern Cross to Boorabbin 1 January 1897: opened Boorabbin to Kalgoorlie February 1966: Bellevue to Northam added gauge and changed route 1968: Northam to Kalgoorlie, replaced narrow gauge with standard gauge and changed route
Originally, at construction, the railway line was referred to as the Yilgarn Railway, named after the Yilgarn Godlfields, but this was changed to Eastern Goldfields Railway around 1899 or 1900.[2] It had also been referred to as the Fremantle–Kalgoorlie Railway.[3]
Operationally in the WAGR era, the line was considered to be between Northam and Kalgoorlie, despite historical material extending the name to Perth.[4]
Operator Arc has Merredin as the location of the start of the EGR in their network operations.[5]
The Yilgarn Railway Act 1892, an act by the Parliament of Western Australiaassented to on 18 March 1892, authorised the construction of the railway line from Northam to Southern Cross.[6] The Southern Cross-Coolgardie Railway Act 1894, assented to on 23 November 1894, authorised construction of a railway line from Southern Cross to Coolgardie.[7] A third act, the Coolgardie–Kalgoorlie Railway Act 1895, assented to on 2 October 1895, authorised construction of a railway line from Coolgardie to Kalgoorlie.[8]
As part of the Federal Government's program to build a standard gauge line across Australia and the passing of the Railways (Standard Gauge) Construction Act 1961, work commenced on gauge converting the line to dual gauge with a new alignment further north of the existing line built between Southern Cross and Kalgoorlie.[when?] From Northam to Southern Cross, the railway was also realigned to reduce the number of road crossings, increase the minimum radius of curvature and lower the ruling gradient to 1:150.
The first official standard gauge iron ore train from Koolyanobbing arrived at Kwinana on 10 July 1967. On 3 August 1968, the Koolyanobbing–Kalgoorlie section opened for freight trains and on 4 November 1968, the first through freight train from Port Pirie arrived in Perth.[20][21]
Upgrades
In November 2005, funding was announced to extend eight crossing loops to accommodate 1,800-metre-long (5,900 ft) trains at Bodallin, Darrine, Wallaroo, Lake Julia, Grass Valley, Bungulla, Booraan and Seabrook, and replace the final 76 kilometres (47 mi) of timber sleepers with concrete sleepers.[22]
^Brady, Ian (June 1971). "A Brief History of Standard Gauge in Australia". Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin. XXII (404). Australian Railway Historical Society: 98–120.
