A railway line they never built

In 1890 the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways was asked to consider the building of a railway from Woodside to Sale, thus completing a grand loop of railway linking most of Gippsland with new markets and cheaper and faster transport of goods, and whole new world of travel convenience for Gippslanders.

The thinking then was, and is, metrocentric, believing that all roads should lead, well, not to Rome, but to Melbourne. The Gippslanders in the Lakes area had established an almost-independent economy before the coming of the railways.

The 1840s route between Port Albert and Sale was a big part of their history and their thinking, and Sale was a vital centre to a vast area, including the area reaching down to Woodside and Yarram.

The Standing Committee did what such committees usually do and set a “Sectional Committee” to report back to it.

On April 20, 1891 the smaller committee took the train up to Traralgon and in the morning went to Carrajung, then spent two days listening to the many people who wanted railways built. They held hearings at Alberton, Port Albert, Woodside, Sale, Stradbroke (Merriman’s Creek) and Yarram. If it really was only two days they must have been very full and very long days, yet that seems to be the case.

On April 22, 1891 the committee held hearings at Port Albert, Alberton and Yarram. The next day, the 23rd, it held hearings at Woodside, Merriman’s Creek and at Sale.

There were about 40 people to give evidence and to be questioned for details as necessary. There was travel between the various towns as well, so the two days reported must be right, but it was an impressive schedule.

The committee was looking into a line from Sale to Longford (seven miles), from Longford to Woodside (28 miles), from Alberton through Yarram to Woodside (28.5 miles), Palmerston to Port Albert (1.4 miles), from Sale to the Great Southern line at Palmerston (48 miles), from Port Albert via Tarraville to Woodside (15 miles), from Alberton direct to Yarram (3.2 miles).

One of the beliefs driving the investigation was that from Port Albert to Yarram there were thousands of hectares of good agricultural land which could only be used for fattening cattle because of the lack of adequate transport. If opened up successfully for agriculture the value to the economy.

The existence of some good areas of timber, particularly yellow stringybark, made the proposal attractive. The committee was told the line would open up about 90,000 acres of millable timber.

The Melbourne Harbour Trust were using this timber and wanted more, and the builders of the Great Southern line had used it extensively. The committee saw this as a good source of railway revenue. There were three lime kilns in the Merriman’s Creek area producing about 2000 bags of lime a month.

There were six lime kilns working near Dutson, one of them producing over 140 bags a day. The committee noted that the line from Longford to Sale would be the most expensive part to build because of the need to bridge the Thomson and to get across the Dutson Morass. At this time Longford had only about 50 residents.

The proposed route from Woodside to Sale was described as passing through sparsely populated county, with most of the affected people gathered at the ends, ie, Woodside and Sale.

The county along the route was described in the report as “along the route for 18 to 20 miles is only indifferent grazing land with but limited settlement upon it, but a large area of good agricultural land exists between the line and the ocean… a splendid forest of timber is however passed through … about 15 miles from Sale the line crosses good agricultural land at

Merriman’s Creek… eight or 10 miles of poor country.. heathy, sandy rises…the last three miles into Sale passes through a private estate devoted solely to grazing…”

The annual patronage for coaches was said to be 2000 people annually, 1500 booked for the full route between Sale and Port Albert and 500 travelling between Sale and Yarram. Witnesses from Sale pointed out that Sale had trade with the whole area limited only by transport problems.

Yarram was described as a growing village of 300 inhabitants. Won Wron had a population of 20.

There was talk of a line down from Traralgon as far as Carrajung, and of line from Yarram to Boodyarn.

Many witnesses presented ‘evidence’ and all were agreed that the line was necessary and would be very profitable (which was what the Government wanted to hear). There were other routes being considered and much special pleading from the little communities who wanted the line.

The committee, after its whirlwind tour, made this recommendation. The “present requirements of the district will be met by a line from Alberton to Woodside, viå Yarram, 15•19 miles in length. They recommend the construction of this railway… They would also suggest that increased rates be charged on this extension; that the price of all Crown lands hereafter selected or sold in the district served by the proposed line be increased, owing to their enhancement in value by the railway; and that all the land required for the line be given to the Department free of cost, and without compensation for damage by severance.”

The chairman, incidentally, was the famous, or infamous, Tommy Bent.

The main Gippsland railway had reached Sale in 1879. The Great Southern line was officially opened to Port Albert in January 1892, People to the east wanted the line to continue on, and it did, to a degree. In 1921, two decades later, the line was extended to Yarram and then to Won Wron. In 1923 it reached Woodside – but that was it. That particular gap was never filled,

We cannot now easily see why railways were so important to the Gippsland of the 1890s and even up to the Second World War. Even then the main line became the lifeline of the coal traffic, moving loads the roads never could have.

The committee reinforced over and over again the increased value of land along the potential railways, and called witnesses to testify to the land-values nearer Port Albert.

Among other things, railways were faster than roads or coastal shipping, so the land could be used for vegetables and feed crops, orchards and market gardens, giving it much higher value and productivity than just raising and fattening cattle. The fishing industry also grew dramatically along the line as far as it was built.

There is land down there of which we have never made the most.