The BHP Whyalla Tramway is a gauge heavy-haul railway on the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It runs from haematite mines at

Iron Monarch Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in fr ...

, Iron Baron and Iron Duke in the

Middleback Range The Middleback Range is a mountain range on the eastern side of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The Middleback Range has been a source of iron ore for over a century, particularly to feed the Whyalla Steelworks. Mines in the region were first ...

, about west of

Whyalla Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta ...

, to company steelworks at the coastal city of

. Opened in 1901, it was built by, and until 2000 operated by, the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

). it was owned by

Liberty House Group Liberty Steel Group Holdings UK Ltd (LHG), which is also referred to as Liberty House or Liberty House UK, is a British industrial and metals company founded in the United Kingdom in 1992 by industrialist Sanjeev Gupta. It is headquartered in L ...

and operated on its behalf by rail operator

One Rail Australia One Rail Australia is an Australian rail freight operator company. Founded by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 1997 as Australian Southern Railroad, and later renamed Genesee & Wyoming Australia, it was renamed One Rail Australia in February 2020 af ...

, which was sold in 2022 to

Aurizon Aurizon ( ) is a freight rail transport company in Australia, formerly named QR National. it was the world’s largest rail transporter of coal from mine to port. Formerly a Queensland Government-owned company, it was privatised and floated o ...

History

BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary) locomotive no 6 with 2000 ton ore train, Iron Knob Tramway, ca 1935 (SLSA B-72165-93)

GWA narrow-gauge iron ore train, Middleback Range-Whyalla

In 1899,

was granted a lease to mine

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

from the Middleback Ranges. The ''Hummock Hill to Iron Knob Tramways and Jetties Act 1900'' authorised BHP to build a 54 kilometre line from Hummock Hill,

Iron Knob Iron Knob is a town in the Australian state of South Australia on the Eyre Peninsula immediately south of the Eyre Highway. At the 2006 census, Iron Knob and the surrounding area had a population of 199. The town obtained its name from its pro ...

that opened on 28 August 1901. In 1930, a branch opened from Middleton Junction to Iron Baron. The latter closed in 1947 and reopened in 1958. In 1990 it was extended 32 kilometres from Iron Baron to Iron Duke. After iron ore production ceased at Iron Baron in 1991 and Iron Duke in 1998, the line from Middleton Junction closed. With the reopening of the Iron Baron Mine, in mid-2012 the line reopened to Iron Baron. In the 1960s, the internal

Whyalla Steelworks The Whyalla Steelworks is a fully integrated steelworks and the only manufacturer of rail in Australia. Iron ore is mined in the Middleback Range to feed the steelworks, resulting in the distribution of finished steel products of over 90 different ...

network was converted to standard gauge to allow large 200 ton capacity torpedo ladles to be used. It also allowed standard gauge trains from interstate to access the steelworks when the

Whyalla railway line The Whyalla railway line runs from Port Augusta to Whyalla. History The Whyalla line was built primarily to serve the BHP's Whyalla Steelworks. The line was built by the Commonwealth Railways as a standard gauge line being opened on 6 October 1 ...

opened in October 1972. In 2000, operations were contracted out to Australian Southern Railroad (ASR), with locomotive maintenance taken over by

Clyde Engineering Clyde Engineering was an Australian manufacturer of locomotives, rolling stock, and other industrial products. It was founded in September 1898 by a syndicate of Sydney businessmen buying the Granville factory of timber merchants Huds ...

and track maintenance by Transfield. In July 2022, the contract was included in the sale of

, as ASR had become, to

Rolling stock

Many of the steam locomotives used on the tramway were transferred from BHP's

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

operations. By 1941, the fleet comprised 12 locomotives. A petrol-electric locomotive was purchased from the

Davenport Locomotive Works The Davenport Locomotive Works, of Davenport, Iowa, USA was formed as the W W Whitehead Company in 1901. In 1902 the company commenced building light locomotives. The Company was renamed the Davenport Locomotive Works in 1904. In late 1930 Dave ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

in 1928 for use at Iron Knob. DH and DE class diesel locomotives replaced the steam locomotives in the 1950s. With the reopening of the line to Iron Baron, five GWNs were delivered in 2013. In July 2019, five former Queensland Railways 2250 class locomotives were repatriated from South Africa to replace the GWNs.Old for New for Whyalla ''Catch Point'' issue 253 September 2019 page 10

Notes

References

{{Eyre Peninsula BHP Eyre Peninsula Railway lines in South Australia Railway lines opened in 1901 1901 establishments in Australia Mining railways in Australia Iron ore railways