Mount Barker railway station is a preserved railway station in

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 ...

on the broad gauge Victor Harbor line, formerly operated by

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Austr ...

and its successor, Australian National. With only broad gauge track running through the station, it has been disconnected from the Adelaide metropolitan network since the Adelaide-Melbourne line was converted to standard gauge in 1995. Since then the station has been the headquarters of the

Australian Railway Historical Society The Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS) aims to foster an interest in the railways, and record and preserve many facets of railway operations. It had divisions in every state and the Australian Capital Territory, although the ACT divis ...

, a not-for-profit organisation trading as

SteamRanger The SteamRanger Heritage Railway is a long broad gauge tourist railway, formerly the Victor Harbor railway line, South Australia, Victor Harbor railway line of the South Australian Railways (SAR). It is operated by the not-for-profit South ...

, that operates tourist trains mainly between Mount Barker and Victor Harbor.

History

In 1884, a branch line was completed between Mount Barker Junction and Victor Harbor. Substantial stations were erected at Mount Barker, Strathalbyn and Goolwa. The Mount Barker station building, opened on 27 November 1883, was built from distinctive Aldgate freestone; it included the stationmaster's quarters and a ticketing office. Two years later, the first railway link between two colonial capital cities in Australia –

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

– was completed, to which the branch was connected at Mount Barker Junction, 5 route kilometres (3 miles) to the north of Mount Barker station. Regular services operated until passenger numbers declined in the late 20th century with increasing ownership of motor cars, and were terminated in April 1984. In 1989, a not-for-profit railway preservation organisation,

, was established by the

to operate its heritage train tours from

to Victor Harbor through the station. Six years later, as part of the One Nation infrastructure program, the main line between Adelaide and

was converted to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

, leaving Steamranger's depot at Dry Creek in metropolitan Adelaide isolated. In a major project, all of SteamRanger's locomotives, rolling stock and infrastructure were moved to Mount Barker station. As part of the move, the

District Council of Mount Barker The Mount Barker District Council is a local government area centred on the town of Mount Barker just outside the Adelaide metropolitan area in South Australia. The council was first established in October 1853. It expanded to four times its o ...

renovated the station building, at the time derelict, to become SteamRanger's base. As a result of rapid growth and traffic congestion on the South Eastern Freeway, sporadic calls have been made since the late 2010s to extend the former passenger rail service beyond Belair to Mount Barker. However, a 2022 government-sponsored report rejected the prospect of opening a train service, arguing that reliability and travel time would "not come close" to buses and cars.

References

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External links

Mount Barker station
SteamRanger Disused railway stations in South Australia Railway stations in Australia opened in 1883 Railway stations closed in 1984 1984 disestablishments in Australia