Willunga railway line

ServiceTypegoods and passengersSystemSouth Australian RailwaysHistoryOpened20 January 1915 (1915-01-20)Closed1969 (1969)TechnicalTrack gauge5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)Minimum radius12 chains (790 ft; 240 m)^[1]Highest elevation437 ft (133 m)
ruling grade: 1 in 45^[1]

Route map
km 0.0 Adelaide 21.4 Hallett Cove Hallett Cove (original site) 1915–74 Seaford line Patpa 26.4 Happy Valley 28.2 Reynella 29.6 Pimpala 30.8 Coorara 32.2 Morphett Vale Yetto 34.5 Hackham Korro 38.9 Noarlunga Seaford Meadows Seaford Moana to Aldinga (corridor reserved) Tuni McLaren Vale Pikkara Willunga This diagram: view talk edit

The Willunga railway line was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network.

History

The line opened on 20 January 1915 by Sir Henry Galway who was the Governor of South Australia at that time. It ran through the southern Adelaide suburbs^[2] from Adelaide railway station to Willunga, over 45-kilometre (28 mi) long (longer than the current Gawler line. It had 16 stopping places between Adelaide and Willunga. It closed beyond Hallett Cove in 1969. In September 1972, a track-removal train dismantled the track between Hallett Cove and Willunga. The Seaford railway line continues from Hallett Cove along a different alignment before rejoining the route of the old line between Seaford Road and Griffiths Drive.

The original corridor remains as the 34-kilometre (21 mi) long Coast to Vines Rail Trail. There is some evidence of railway track remaining on this trail, notably near the South Road crossing at Hackham, the top of the Seaford Hill and a small section of track in a paddock adjacent to Victor Harbor Road, McLaren Vale. Occasionally, rails surface through the bitumen at Field Street, McLaren Vale. Most station infrastructure was demolished except for a buried goods platform at Morphett Vale, and the passenger platform and building at Willunga.^[3]

At the time of its opening, there was a proposal to extend it to Second Valley to connect with coastal steam shipping to Kangaroo Island for holidays, with the route already approved as far as Normanville and Yankalilla.^[1] This extension was never built.

References