Marree railway station was located on the

Central Australia Railway The former Central Australia Railway, which was built between 1878 and 1929 and closed in 1980, was a 1067 mm narrow gauge railway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A standard gauge line duplicated the southern section from Port Aug ...

, and later the

Marree railway line The Marree railway line is located in the Australian state of South Australia. History As a result of the opening up of the Leigh Creek Coalfield in the late 1940s and capacity restrictions on the existing narrow gauge Central Australia Railwa ...

serving the small

South Australian 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 ...

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

town of Marree.

History

Marree station opened on 7 February 1884 at what was then known as Hergott Springs as the terminus of the

when it was extended from Farina. The line was extended to

Coward Springs Coward Springs is a former railway station of the Central Australia Railway and associated settlement in the Far North region of South Australia, west of Lake Eyre South. The name refers to a nearby mound spring, situated on the Oodnadatta Tr ...

on 1 February 1888. The town and railway station were renamed as Marree in 1917. In 1891, the line was extended north to

Oodnadatta Oodnadatta is a small, remote outback town and locality in the Australian state of South Australia, located north-north-west of the state capital of Adelaide by road or direct, at an altitude of . The unsealed Oodnadatta Track, an outback road ...

, ultimately reaching

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

in 1929. On 27 July 1957, Marree became a

dual-gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to ca ...

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated on or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines. At a station with platforms running from left to right, the minimum ...

, when the extension of a heavy-duty

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 ...

line was opened originally to convey coal from

Telford Cut Telford Cut was an open-cut coal mine, now closed, in the Leigh Creek Coalfield in South Australia. For the 72 years between its opening in 1943 and its closure, the mine supplied sub-bituminous coal to fire power stations first in Adelaide the ...

Stirling North Stirling North is a town located east of Port Augusta in the Australian state of South Australia. The now abandoned Marree railway line forms the official border line separating the two towns. Primarily, Stirling North is a satellite town to Po ...

since the capacity of the flood-prone, lightly constructed

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

line from

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a port, seaport, it is now a road traffic and Junction (rail), railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about ...

was inadequate for tonnages required to serve the new

Playford A Power Station Playford may refer to: Places * City of Playford, Australia * Electoral district of Playford, Australia * Playford B Power Station, South Australia * Playford, Suffolk, a village in England * Hotel in Australia, part of Accor Hotels People *The ...

near Port Augusta, though the extension to Marree was also justified because of the cattle traffic. The narrow gauge line south of Marree remained operational for freight traffic until the standard gauge line was completed. The narrow gauge trains north of Marree ceased when a new standard gauge line opened from Tarcoola to

in 1980, replacing the Central Australia Railway in its role as the line to Alice Springs. The standard gauge line remained open for a mixed goods train, though it was replaced by a goods only train in 1985. FLINDERS RANGES HERITAGE SURVEY VOLUME 6
Department of Environment and Natural Resources A farewell train was operated to Marree using a set of Bluebird railcars on 9 May 1987. The line was officially closed on 10 June 1987. Leigh Creek Coalfield line
SA Track & Signal The goods platform, passenger platform, and station building are intact with the station building preserved as a museum. Two NSU class locomotives and 2 wagons have been preserved at the station under the ownership of the Marree Progress Association, while another NSU is within the township, though it is for sale and in derelict condition.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Gallery
Disused railway stations in South Australia Railway stations in Australia opened in 1884 Railway stations closed in 1987 Far North (South Australia)