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All aboard for Wonthaggi

15/10/2020

22 Comments

 
PictureThe first passenger train arrives at Wonthaggi Station, 1912
By Peter Cliff
 
I WONDER if the people of Bass Coast ever look at the remnants of their rail line and imagine what a wonderful thing it would be if it were brought to life again. After all, the people own the alignment and it didn’t take long to make in the first place. Ten weeks only to construct the Nyora to Wonthaggi component, using horses and hand labour.
 
Victoria’s visionaries of the early 1900s knew that extending the rail service to all corners of the state would enable towns to prosper. From about 1950, however, the value of a rail service was forgotten and replaced by the new obsession: building roads and cars.

The wheel has turned; there is renewed recognition that a rail service can revitalise regional towns and improve their amenity. The attraction of cheaper land and stable populations attracts light industry and employment, helps to retain young people, decentralises education, increases tourism and, of course, provides access to the city in little more than an hour.
 
The restoration of rail service to Wonthaggi  would provide a link, with the afore-mentioned advantages to the intermediate towns of Clyde,  Tooradin, Koo Wee Rup, Nyora, Almurta and Woolamai.  Ditto for a line through Loch and Korumburra to Leongatha.
 
The issue is timely because Casey City Council wants the Cranbourne line extended to Clyde.
 
Historically rural regions have always received less toward amenity than is enjoyed by residents in the suburbs. I believe reinstatement of a rail service to Bass Coast is a prerequisite for the region to develop into a mature and balanced economy. In principal, provide the appropriate infrastructure and the rest will follow in time.
 
For evidence, you just need to compare the sister towns within an approximately 100km radius of Melbourne. Towns such as Geelong, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Seymour and Warragul, which all have a direct rail link to the city, are all deservedly enjoying the new move to decentralization, while Bass Coast and South Gippsland are lagging.
 
I understand a rail service will not run for profit. It must be seen as a service in the same sense as roads, light poles and policing. The upside is that the community benefits enormously and generates increased income that is taxed.
Picture
The original railway line between Nyora and Wonthaggi in 1910 was built by hand in 10 weeks. The last train ran on December 4 1977.
 
The population of Wonthaggi fell when the State coalmine closed in 1968 and again when the train service ceased. Blows of this magnitude are hard to overcome. Despite this, the population has risen slowly but unemployment is high and young people have to leave for education and employment opportunities.
 
The Gippsland Regional Growth Plan (May 2014) forecasts a profound change to the demography of the region. In 1996 people aged over 65 formed 12 per cent of the population; by 2041 they are expected to make up 30 per cent, which has major implications for health, social and cultural services. and is in stark contrast to the sister towns within 100Km radius of the city.
 
To achieve a vibrant community, Bass Coast needs a more diverse economy that provides convenient jobs for residents to ensure sustainable communities. It means supporting the development of industry sectors with strong prospects for employment, professional services and tourism.
 
Despite the large number of people visiting Bass Coast and Phillip island, as an observer I do wonder if the present tourist economy benefits many in the region. The focus on the Penguin Parade is such a preoccupation and seems to involve relatively few to conduct it. A strategy designed to promote other worthy assets in the region may entice tourists to linger longer with improved employment opportunities and a lift to the collective bottom line.
 
These days TV programs extol the benefits and pleasures of rail journeys throughout the world.
 
The Wonthaggi line was taken up in 1980s for the want of vision. Sections of the trail have since been developed for walkers and bike riding but the easement could readily be returned to rail and the bike trail continued, notwithstanding that a toilet block has been built on the line in the township of Koo Wee Rup. These days, all are aware of the need to achieve the above with minimal cost to the environment.
 
Peter Cliff grew up on a farm in Glen Forbes and maintains strong links with the area despite living in Mt Eliza.​
Picture
30 RM at the Powlett River trestle near Wonthaggi with the RTA Wonthaggi to Anderson tour, 22 October 1977, six weeks before service ended. Photo courtesy of G. Cargeeg, GSWRHS,
(Creative Commons)
22 Comments
Monica Smith link
16/10/2020 09:35:20 am

Totally agree with Cliff. We need a railway line for many and all the reasons Cliff raised. We also need councillors with a clear vision for the future, that don't just follow what has been set as the norm for this area. Why, in this day and age, haven't we got what should be basic for life anywhere, a railway line?

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Robert Hayward
16/10/2020 10:04:56 am

They should NOT of taken the train service away ..Lets get it BACK NOW.......Robert Hayward Cape Paterson

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Rhonda Sutton
16/10/2020 10:18:31 am

It would be a world class tourist attraction and provide a much needed transport link. I mostly travelled to Melbourne by train when I lived in Echuca as many others did. However now I live in Inverloch the public transport service from this area is so bad most people don’t use it

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Paul Bickerstaff
16/10/2020 07:35:28 pm

fully agree

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Bernie Mccomb
16/10/2020 01:44:59 pm

To make public transport viable, many, if not all of us, need to abandon our so called love affair with our cars. If it seems unthinkable, some of us remember life before cars, not much more than 50 years ago. Why prolong the agony? If cars bend priorities out of shape, how about charges to hasten their demise?

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Carol Cox
16/10/2020 02:31:22 pm

I am opposed to the reintroduction of passenger rail from the city to Wonthaggi. Am I alone in coming to this beautiful area because of its rural surrounds? I believe an easy commute to the city will turn Wonthaggi into a "bedroom suburb" for Melbourne workers who will build housing development after housing development on the land around our town and destroy any "country" feel that we still enjoy. Do we really want Wonthaggi to be another Bendigo or Ballarat, both of which have populations over the 100,000 mark - you might as well live in the city. This is a gut response to Peter's article, but if you can assure me that zoning laws etc. would ensure over-development would not follow the reintroduction of passenger rail, I'd be pleased to hear it.

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Bernie McComb
16/10/2020 04:03:09 pm

Life before cars was much more adventurous, imagine not spending so much time in traffic jams and hustling for car park spots?

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Jeff Sim
16/10/2020 04:57:10 pm

Agree with you Carol. A recent trip to Japan showed me how to make rail viable, just add lots and lots and lots of people.
P.S rail would never be rebuilt on top of the dunes at Kilcunda.

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Step O'Rafferty
16/10/2020 08:10:45 pm

I don't think you need to worry carol, passenger railway services are only maintained to big cities and towns like the ones you mentioned. Wonthaggi/Inverloch certainly will not be getting a rail service before the combined population reaches 100,000.

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Sam
17/10/2020 04:30:09 pm

I have had the pleasure to spend short amounts of time from Melbourne in Wonthaggi late last year whilst my daughter was doing her medical internship at the local hospital. Similarly at Bendigo when she was at the hospital there prior. I fully agree Wonthaggi charm needs to be preserved and not be overrun with population. A nice weekend sea -side resort would do me fine. But a train service could add to the charm and keep the automobiles away especially on the busy Bass Hwy. However, that will require an optimum population density to be viable and that needs very harsh and enforceable zoning rules to avoid becoming Gold Coast overnight.

Some of the old country rail services in Europe and Britain have been revived by community involvement but these are few and far between. Mostly these have shut for good.

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/walking-britains-lost-railways
(interesting stories here). Victoria did not fare any better once the mining and timber carriage was over.

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Lou Pecora
16/10/2020 03:06:15 pm

It's a "NO BRAINER"! The recommissioning of the line is essential for the growth and development of the region and to ease pressure on the already congested road system to and from Melbourne.

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Tricia O'Brien
16/10/2020 03:37:37 pm

Trains are a wonderful way to travel and allows people who don't have cars to move around without too much cost. A well managed service that allows people to see the beauty of Gippsland from a quiet window seems good for our communities, the environment, businesses and employment. especially if there is a carriage for bike storage.

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Step O'Rafferty
16/10/2020 08:05:07 pm

To rebuild railway infrastructure to Wonthaggi on which trains could operate as fast as the current buses would cost at least a billion dollars. If it was built the line would be better off branching from the mainline at Lang Lang so it could serve the coastal towns and then after departing Bass, rejoin the old formation on the climb from Woolamai to Anderson. The current bus service takes 53 minutes to run from Lang Lang to Wonthaggi. The train journey was 84 minutes. I don't think any state government would be willing to invest that much in the Bass Coast region for a rail service.

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Simone
9/11/2021 09:41:12 pm

I would like to see the rail trail extended between Anderson and Nyora. Rail trails do have positive economic benefits for regional areas in terms of visitation and spend.

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Lembit Marder
8/1/2022 09:57:27 pm

When I was about 13yo in the mid 60's I took a train from Wonthaggi to Melbourne. I will never in my life forget that journey being able to sit up the front of the train.I have ridden the rail trails of Great Southern and the Bass coast. To establish the extension from Woolamai to Nyrora would be truely wonderful. I am truely nostalgic for the trains lines that Henry Bolte ripped up right across Victoria in the 1960s. He was a criminal. To name a bridge after him is disgusting. I can understand that to re-establish train lines is expensive , but please make the effort at least do the rail trails where train lines once ran. Once cannot help but marvel and the massive human effort to build these over 100 years ago.

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Step O'Rafferty
9/1/2022 07:16:19 am

Lembit the same thing happened to me as a child. Being able to sit up front, talk to the driver and have the railway formation, signs, signals points and levers explained to me got me hooked on railways. I got a job with them on the day I turned 15.
It was very sad to see the infrastructure fall into 'essential maintenance only' mode and witness the shift of passengers and freight from railways onto the roads. The 'convenience' of cars made them very popular and that is still the case today.
There are quite a few detractors of rail trails, some of them believe that the cycling fraternity have stolen the trains from them. While I would like to see trains return to South Gippsland I believe the rail trails are an excellent use of the publicly owned land. I am certain that the existence of rail trails has saved a good number of pedestrians and cyclists from injuries and death because they do not have to share their journeys with cars and trucks. The extension from Woolamai to Nyora, linking the two South Gippsland rail trails, willl create a safe pathway from Wonthaggi to Yarram.

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Leo Waaleboer
28/1/2023 03:27:18 pm

Same here, Mid 60's my parents lived in Glenn Forbes on a dairy farm and I got a job in Melbourne , I was 17/18 at the time. Every weekend I took the late Friday night train home. Usually a motorcar and always tried to be early at Spencer Street so I could have the front seat. Parents did not have a car , the quickest way to get home was to walk for about 2km or so further up the track and crossed a few fences, crossed the Bass river and I was home and all this in the pitch dark with the help of a small torch. The third week I did this, the conductor told me stay put and the driver stopped at the point where I usually left the tracks on my previous trips for me to get off. Occasionally when the service was loco hauled, the driver also stopped in the middle of nowhere to let me off. Oh boy, do I long for those days to come back. We sure do need those services back, but not much hope if it is not going to make a profit. Governments priorities are profits and somewhere further down the list comes services for the people.

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Step O'Rafferty
28/1/2023 04:41:42 pm

Thanks Leo for your memories. I too long for those days when the trains on branch lines would stop between stations for regular passengers to save them a long walk. At one stage I lived at Grantville so I had a 4 mile walk home in the dark from Almurta station whenever I made a day trip to Melbourne. My experience of drivers stopping between stations for me was whenever I visited my brother who lived between Nyora and Loch. There are a lot of tiger snakes in that area and they often bathed in the warmth of the ballast late into the summer evenings! So walking along the track in the dark was not always a safe option!

Sam
9/1/2022 12:34:42 pm

Great suggestions Lembit and Step. I am not a bicycle enthusiast but as a walker and hiker I would have liked to travel on foot in South Gippsland to enjoy the views and countryside. I am not very familiar with the area though but having looked at contents in Wiki I am under impression the local Wellington shire council in the relevant areas between Leongatha and Yarram might already have some plans on the rail trails. It is perhaps something Bass Strait Shire may have to address also. I noticed as part of Victorian government commitment toward building bike and pedestrian trails, VicRoads is also funding some parts.across the State (even though current focus seems to be metro Council areas). My personal preference is always to have separated bike and walking trails due to safety concerns having suffered collisions with speeding/ overtaking bikes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Gippsland_railway_line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonthaggi_railway_line
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/traffic-and-road-use/cycling/pop-up-bike-lanes

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Step O'Rafferty
9/1/2022 01:30:28 pm

I agree Sam, separate lanes for walking/ cycling would be great but that is probably only cost effective in urban areas. I walk and cycle on the Bass Coast Rail Trail. Most people are very courteous and friendly however there are a few cyclists who speed past pedestrians without any bell warning. I understand that cyclists enjoy cruising along with a tail wind but they are being selfish, dangerous and arrogant if they will not slow down when approaching pedestrians. Fortunately those cyclists are in the minority.

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Sam
9/1/2022 06:43:46 pm

Not to worry Step. I was not taking a dig at the country cyclists. Regards the bigger picutre, having looked a bit more in detail at the Bass Coast maps, I notice the rail trail actually goes beyond Anderson in the Nyora direction but only in stages. So I guess there are only a few spots where one may have to ride or walk along the motor ways. If this is the case then it should not be a bit problem for the Shire council to invest funds to recover some stretches of the Nyora-Wonthagi rail track unless some of it is converted to private land.
The missing bit seems to be between Woodleigh and Loch and then towards Nyora. A small stretch of it does seem to go under the South Gippsland Hwy. Also depends which route the Nyora to Leongatha trail takes as that has to come through Loch.

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Step O'Rafferty
9/1/2022 09:05:09 pm

The rail easement is still publicly owned between Woolamai and Nyora so none of it has to be purchased however I don't know if all owners of the adjoining land are in agreement with the re-opening of the easement for public use. At the South Gippsland Highway it was a level crossing. I think the best option for a rail trail crossing at this location, where the road speed limit is 100 kph, would be a culvert similar to a livestock subway. From Woodleigh the line went to Nyora, passing the outskirts of Loch. The two lines diverged just over a mile down the hill from Nyora. The stretch of railway/railtrail that you saw going under the highway is in fact the Leongatha line and is now already a rail trail.

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