Re: Port Elliot

[jshugg@westpac.com.au]

In article <3A80EBAE.A6330EFF@enternet.com.au>,
  Chris Brownbill <cbrnbill@enternet.com.au> wrote:
> First observation is how little is made of the claim to fame Port
Elliot
> has to being the terminus of Australia's first railway
[snip]

That may be because Tasmania claims that honour. A line several miles
long was built near Port Arthur in the south-east of what was then Van
Dieman's land, in the mid 1830s, predating the Port Elliot line by I
think 20 years.

The Tassie line carried goods and passengers across a peninsular,
enabling them to avoid an arduous sea journey. It had wooden rails,
conventional wagons with flanged iron wheels, and was operated by
convict labour.

The Port Elliot line can, of course, claim to be the mainland's first
railway, or Australia's first iron railed line, or Australia's first
railway not to use human propulsion - all quite worthy claims - but it
was not Australia's first railway.

James


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