Midland Railway of Western Australia

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The Midland Railway of Western Australia was a private railway built on the land-selection principle that ran from Midland Junction near the capital city of Perth, Western Australia to a location south of the port of Geraldton.

1 History
2 New Company old name
3 Workshops
4 Notes
5 References

[edit] History

Construction of the Midland Railway commenced in 1886 through a privately-funded project^[1] during a period when funds were being raised to establish agricultural and mining railways.^[2] The Western Australian Government granted a land concession of 3,319,464 acres (13,433.39 km²) to the Midland Railway Company following its registration in 1890. The concession of 12,000 acres (49 km²) of land for every mile of railway completed entitled the company to select land between Midland Junction and Walkaway, near Geraldton, within 40 miles (64 km) of the new railway.^[3]

Between 1905 and 1918, the company actively pursued a scheme of land classification and settlement led by land agent and politician James Gardiner. The first subdivision was auctioned at Moora on 22 June 1906.^[4] By 1911, 16 subdivisions between Midland Junction and Dongara had been classified and auctioned. In 1910, Gardiner instigated and managed the Ready Made Farms Scheme, which provided cleared and fenced farms with houses to prospective settlers.^[5] The townsites of Coorow, Carnamah and Winchester formed the backbone of the scheme. The scheme was advertised widely to British citizens and was moderately successful, with 35 of the 58 farms sold by the end of 1915.^[6]

The Western Australian Government Railways later built a parallel line about 50 km further east.

Between 1914 and 1917, business declined rapidly and the company operated at a loss. This was brought on by decreased revenue owing to the construction of the Western Australian Government Railways Northern Railway (which captured railway traffic from the Midland Railway), crop losses due to drought, the loss of men from districts owing to the First World War, and the imposition of new federal taxes. In 1918, the scheme was wound up.^[7]

The line was acquired by the Government Railways in 1964.

[edit] New Company old name

In 2002 as the earlier original Midland Railway Company business was no longer extant, the South Spur Railway resurrected the name for the Restaurant train business that runs the Spirit of the West.

[edit] Workshops

The Midland Railway established its workshops and headquarters at Midland Junction. Later on, in 1906, the Government Railways relocated their workshops from its overcrowded site at Fremantle to Midland also.

The site of the Midland Railway Company Workshops (a different and separate workshops north west and the other side of the main rail corridor from the Midland Railway Workshops and marshalling yard (which actually worked across the Great Eastern Highway next to the town Post Office) is now the location of the Centrepoint shopping centre and its car-park.

[edit] Notes

‘Midland Railway Company’, in J.S. Battye, Cyclopedia of Western Australia, p. 474.
Appleyard R.T. 1981, ‘Western Australia: Economic and demographic growth 1850-1914’, in C.T. Stannage (ed.), A New History of Western Australia, Nedlands: UWA Press, p. 216.
The Midland Railway Company of Western Australia Ltd, London, 1914, MN239/2, PR4983/23: Battye Library.
Midland Railway Co., 1914.
Dornan G. n.d., ‘The Early History of the Midland Railway Company’, unpub. thesis; Battye Library.
Dornan G. n.d., ‘The Early History of the Midland Railway Company’, unpub. thesis; Battye Library.
Midland Railway Co., London, Minute Book No. 8, p. 201, MN239/1, 1558A/3-8: Battye Library.

[edit] References

Gardiner, David (2001) "James Gardiner: Politics, Cricket and Land Sales", Early Days, 12 (1), pp. 47–59
Gunzburg, Adrian (1989) The Midland Railway Company locomotives of Western Australia, Melbourne, Vic : Light Railway Research Society of Australia, ISBN 0-909340-27-7; (Includes a condensed history of the Company from 1886 to 1964)