Serviceton, Victoria

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Serviceton Victoria
Platform side of Serviceton railway station
Established:	1887
Postcode:	3420
Elevation:	119 m
Location:	437 km from Melbourne 294 km from Adelaide (SA) 139 km from Horsham
LGA:	West Wimmera Shire
State District:	Lowan
Federal Division:	Mallee
Mean Max Temp Mean Min Temp Rainfall 21.2 °C 70 °F 8.1 °C 47 °F 490 mm 19.3 in

Serviceton is a small town in Victoria, Australia, located near the Victorian-South Australian border, 437 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. The town was named after Sir James Service, Premier of Victoria in 1880 and from 1883-86.

When the Victorian and South Australian railways were joined at the old border in 1887, a station was built on the border. The border was intended to be on the 141 degrees east meridian but, owing to a surveying error, border markers were placed 3.6 km west of the meridian. Victoria finally succeeded in having the erroneously surveyed border declared to be the legal border in 1913, and therefore Serviceton is now fully in Victoria.^[1] Nevertheless, the old South Australian Railways, and its successors, the Australian National Railways Commission, the National Rail Corporation and the Australian Rail Track Corporation have continued to own the railway to Serviceton outright.

The town is the subject of a Tom Waits song entitled Town With No Cheer from his album Swordfishtrombones.^[2]

[edit] Notes

Coordinates: 36°22′S 140°59′E