Mount Gambier and South East Lines

The Mount Gambier railway line connected branch lines from Beachport and Kingston SE to the world. Let's go exploring.
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Like all South Australian lines, it followed the pattern of first linking inland towns, agriculture, and industry, to the seaports - followed by linkages to intra and interstate lines. Opened in stages from 1881, it was originally built as narrow gauge and joined Mount Gambier to Beachport.
It connected at Naracoorte to another isolated narrow gauge line from Naracoorte to Kingston SE, and eventually it was extended to meet the broad gauge line from Adelaide at Wolseley. It was around this same time that the Adelaide to Wolseley line was extended to Serviceton to create the interstate Melbourne-Adelaide railway.
The stations and sidings included:
Wolseley
Custon
Bangham
Frances
Binnum
Kybybolite
Hynam
Naracoorte
Struan
Glenroy
Coonawarra
Penola
Krongart
Kalangadoo
Wandilo
Mount Gambier
MUSIC:
Onycs - Voyager Made by : @clemounet_ev (Instagram) onycs.bandcamp.com/music
Free download: bit.ly/voyager_escape-download
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IMAGES:
State Library of South Australia
Public Domain
Weston Langford - www.westonlangford.com/
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
:)

[@markarthurson7715]

Well done again. My first train journey, at 8 months old, was on the Mt Gambier line to Adelaide on the Bluebird. Wish I could remember it!

[@slepper98]

Thanks, most enjoyable. There's so many old lines is SA, I thought NSW had a few, nowhere near as many. Best wishes.

[@Outdoorstype]

This is the second to last old line in SA on my list. NSW is next, there's heaps more to explore.

[@KanesTrains]

Great video, definitely more enjoyable than my silly little Tantanoola one - glad SA has you 😎😎

[@Outdoorstype]

Your vid was one of my inspirations for this. I still want to work with you on a video one day mate. I'm nearly all out of old SA lines.

[@omalleetours3456]

Another informative video!

[@Outdoorstype]

Thanks again!

[@nevillemander]

Great vid. I so remember taking the Bluebird from Penola to Adelaide return when working in Penola as a young "banker" in the 70's. Such cold trips in winter. More recently, I enjoy driving alongside the old railway line as you travel between Naracoorte and Coonawarra/Penola with the line shifting away to the west around Struan. Thanks for the great memories!

[@Outdoorstype]

Thanks for the memories!

[@jeremykemp5845]

Brilliant video Mike. Loved the drone shot @ Frances with the huge storm clouds in the background. Also like the fact the rails are still there in many locations & some of the track switch stands are still there by the bike ways in Mt Gambier. Sad the line was shut down though

[@Outdoorstype]

Thanks JK. Yes, out of all the closed lines I've seen, this and the EP lines looked like lines that should still be in use.

[@user-gz2sh5pf9k]

That was great, any chance of doing the Mount to Heywood connection.

[@Outdoorstype]

One day I'll get back down that way. Thanks for watching!

[@kenfowler1980]

Thx mate! With the amount of grain moving from the Mallee & Francis by road to Portland there is a massive opportunity to reopen the line. Obviously Naracoorte would have to be bypassed at Hyman but the rest of the corridor is open. QUBE logistics already have a freight yard near Hyman to service the meat works. You would obviously skirt around the eastern edge of the mount but it is doable. Anyway cheers mate great video!

[@Outdoorstype]

Agreed. Just how much industry does it take to keep a rail line?

[@kenfowler1980]

@@Outdoorstype it’s the bureaucrats, they have two jobs 1st what ever they were hired to do and 2nd keep their boss happy. And on it goes up the line until it gets to the bureaucrats in treasury who need to ensure their bosses (the government) has enough money to keep the promises they made and to keep the voters happy! They look at it in simple terms, they have to spend money on roads so the car drivers have something to drive on & most of the voters live in cities and on the east coast. To them rail is just another cost & if a few country people get cranky they know that there isn’t enough votes in the country to impact either party. That’s why in Victoria for example, beyond the big cities of Geelong, Wodonga, Ballarat and Bendigo passenger rail is by bus and freight by road. South Australia is worse. Most South Australians live in Adelaide or near by and the only rail now operating is on the interstate freight routes. As you know the government in Adelaide is put into and kicked out of government by the voters in Adelaide (& to a lesser extent the iron triangle) Sad really but if they were to look into the future, freight movement won’t be by road - climate change, infrastructure costs and lack of qualified staff will finish long distance road transport. The industry is already screaming for drivers - people don’t want to work weekends and spend their off time away from home. That’s why the standards are dropping. Where as interstate rail powered by renewable energy, can lift far more with less crew and with less infrastructure. You don’t need 4 lane concrete highways for example, if you use rail. But I’m preaching to the converted :) sorry! Cheers and keep up the good work!

[@andrewrussack8647]

Good work. Suggest you caption videos to show direction of view, etc. 👍 Thanks

[@Outdoorstype]

I like that idea. Thankyou!

[@navtejlotey6549]

Great video, it is a shame that the rail yards were removed at Mt Gambier meaning no train to Mt Gambier anytime soon 😑

[@garyfield4032]

like to see the Mt Gambier - Heywood rail line. Currently dormant but their is a strong campaign to reopen the rail line primarily for logs but will include containers and other freight in the future, once the line is converted to standard gauge.

[@Outdoorstype]

It's on the - now getting very long - list. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@andrewrussack8647]

Really like your videos. Good work to capture what was. SA once had a rail system to be proud of!

[@user-qr7jf1ng6c]

Jeeze mate, i wish i knew that you were coming through the DOO. Not much on your vid for a once busy Station. I was the last SM and have the Station chockers as it was when i left in 86. The only Station in the South East to have history inside and out. Still in my railway cottage behind the Quad. Check me out on your next visit. Cheers.

[@Outdoorstype]

Ah yes. I've read about you! Bloody rain had me on the hop and I do regret not spending more time there. Sounds like I need to visit again soon.

[@Outdoorstype]

Might head back there this long weekend!

[@darylcheshire1618]

As you might know, this network of rails was originally 3’6” and was converted to BG in the ‘50s. At the same time there was a national discussion of converting all guages to SG and with this in mind iron sleepers were used and there are holes for SG which never happened. If you look around you can still see some iron sleepers with SG holes in them. Ironic as there has been some discussion of converting the Mt Gambier lines to SG. But nobody wants to pay for the conversion. Not sure if there is still viable freight out of Snuggery. During the gauge conversion, the NG rail motor to Beachport was still operating and at the time there was a break-of-gauge operation at Rendelsham. There is a book about this gauge conversion written in the ‘70s, I forget the name of it. Trivia: Millicent was the furtherest extent of BG operations in SA.

[@Outdoorstype]

This is excellent detail! Thank you. These days there's so many photo's of everything - In contrast to how hard it is to get photos and a window into everyday operations back then. Great info.

[@graememellor8319]

There has been talk of reopening the line from Mt Gambier (Glenburnie) to Portland for log trains.

[@Planetrainguy]

Awesome video Mike.

[@qjtvaddict]

It would be a nice feeder to a maglev lol for going to Adelaide or Melbourne

[@Outdoorstype]

Monorail!

[@chrisosborne3780]

Amazing Video mate.....Absolutely love your drone work...

[@Outdoorstype]

Cheers for watching!

[@bradleytanner7230]

Wonderful video mate very informative. The Kingston station still exists its the office of Kingston farm supplies i think its called now.

[@Outdoorstype]

Yeah, it's pretty ugly. I forgot the old photo I had of the station! I'll show it on the stream.

[@Rhys4AUFC]

Good work. It’s criminal that no trains run to Mount Gambier, stupid trucks

[@Outdoorstype]

This time, it is a total wtf.

[@kenfowler1980]

Stupid bureaucrats! Australian National wasn’t interested in branch lines. A lot of the freight movement in the SE is for export (like the Riverland) so rail transport to the ports makes sense! Maybe one day when a future government realises the true cost of road transport, these lines will be redeveloped

[@footbru]

I reckon that the Victorian government has a role to play, by reconnecting Heywood to Warrnambool, and eventually from Heywood to Rennick - then they could argue that it is up to the SA government to re-establish the train to Mt Gambier and eastward. Whatever else they do, they have to protect the existing infrastructure - no turn it into a bike path like Mt Gambier.

[@stevecallachor1]

Trucks are cheaper for government because the independent owner/operator borrows the $500,000 for the rig, using the family home as security, and then tries to,make a living by accepting cut-throat rates to carry stuff on roads paid for with fuel taxes. Stavros

[@kenfowler1980]

@@stevecallachor1 exactly!

[@DrewsAdventuresGo]

Fantastic explore Mike. I felt a whole range of emotions seeing how some stations have been looked after well (converted to homes / accommodation) yet others were left to rot or removed entirely. Adored your drone footage with the storm clouds in the back drop about 1/3rd way in the video, too . I'm really interested to know why some stations were left as is yet others removed or converted to other purposes? Was it pure economics or infrastructure changes or a whole mix, do you think? Thank you for sharing this one, mate 💯 😍

[@Outdoorstype]

I think it's a mix of opportunity and cost. Now I have the archives, I think that's a subject worth exploring! Thanks!