Re: Port Elliot

[Chris Brownbill <cbrnbill@enternet.com.au>]

AFAIK there are claims from four States for the title of Australia's
first railway - all of which have certain degrees of validity.

1.  SA for the Goolwa to Port Elliot line
2.  Tas for the Port Arthur convict line
3.  Vic for the Melbourne to Sandridge line
4.  NSW for the Sydney to Parramatta line

The first three are fairly well based and have been long debated, and
the fourth came up in a 'Bulletin' artlicle last year where the claim
was based on its construction being commenced before the construction on
the Sandridge line - even though the Sandridge line opened before the
Parramatta line.

So, there is no correct answer, and where you stand will as often as not
depend on where you live.

I guess its a bit like the question of who built the first steam engine
- was it Watt, Trevithick or someone else?  Similar again to who
invented television - growing up in the British empire as I did I
believed that Baird the Scotsman invented it, but I learned later that
the Yanks reckon some bloke from Utah did it first.  The Kiwis also
claim to have been the first to achieve powered flight.

Whatever the case - Port Elliot has as strong or stronger a case than
the others, and its piss-poor that the locals by and large dont
recognise it.


jshugg@westpac.com.au wrote:
> 
> 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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