Kalgoorlie railway station

Kalgoorlie
The eastern end of the station in November 1930.
Location	Forrest Street Kalgoorlie WA 6430 Australia
Coordinates	30°44′46″S 121°28′00″E / 30.74611°S 121.46667°E / -30.74611; 121.46667Coordinates: 30°44′46″S 121°28′00″E / 30.74611°S 121.46667°E / -30.74611; 121.46667
Elevation	1,234 feet (376 m) [1]
Line(s)	Eastern Goldfields Railway Trans-Australian Railway
Platforms	1
History
Opened	8 September 1896 (1896-09-08)

Kalgoorlie railway station is located at 374m 78 c on the main East-West rail corridor across Australia, in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

View from Railway Station, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, 23 May 1931

A WAGR P class locomotive with the Kalgoorlie Express at Kalgoorlie railway station, 1935

Establishment

Construction of the railway station and yard was begun in the late 1890s following the connection from Perth in January 1897.^[2] The station was formally opened by the then Governor of Western Australia, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Gerard Smith KCMG, at a ceremony held on the station platform on 8 September 1896.^[3]

In the early stages of the development of railways in the Eastern Goldfields it was the junction of the following railways:- ^[4]

• Kalgoorlie – Boulder. opened 8 November 1897
• Kalgoorlie – Kanowna. opened 15 June 1898
• Kalgoorlie – Menzies. opened 13 February 1899

Platform

The Kalgoorlie railway station has the longest platform in the state of Western Australia ^[5]

At either end of the main platform are two bays, the one to the east (adjacent to the former water tank and signal box), was where services from the Boulder loop line passenger services arrived, and the western bay is where the current Propsector services depart and arrive.

Location and commemorations

Due to it being the western terminus of the Trans-Australian Railway, the station has been the location of a number of commemorations and ceremonies from the opening of that railway in 1917 and since.^[6]

Break of gauge

It was once a significant stopping location for the break-of-gauge between the Western Australian Government Railways's narrow gauge Eastern Goldfields Railway and the Trans-Australian Railway towards the Eastern states of Australia.

Standardisation of the gauge between Perth and Kalgoorlie was completed in 1968. In 1998, during the standardisation of the gauges throughout Australia, the interstate track between Kalgoorlie Station and Broken Hill on the New South Wales/South Australian border, and Serviceton on the Victorian/South Australian border was transferred to the government-owned Australian Rail Track Corporation.^[7]

Current services

For eastward train travellers, on the transcontinental Indian Pacific service, Kalgoorlie is the last town encountered for hundreds of kilometres before entering the vast expanse of the Nullarbor Plain. The Prospector train run by Transwa also provides daily services to Perth.

Notes