The Pinnaroo railway line ran east from the Adelaide to Melbourne line at

Tailem Bend Tailem Bend (locally, "Tailem") is a rural town in South Australia, south-east of the state capital of Adelaide. It is located on the lower reaches of the River Murray, near where the river flows into Lake Alexandrina. It is linear in layout s ...

to Pinnaroo near the

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 ...

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 ...

state border. The route continues into Victoria via the

Victorian Railways The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...

line to

Ouyen Ouyen is a town in Victoria, Australia, located in the Rural City of Mildura at the junction of the Calder Highway and Mallee Highway, south of Mildura, and northwest of Melbourne. At the 2016 census, the town had a population of 1,045. His ...

where it joined the Mildura line.

History

The line opened from

to Pinnaroo on 14 September 1906, being extended to the state border on 29 July 1915. When the Adelaide to Wolseley line was closed east of Tailem Bend for gauge conversion, the Pinnaroo line became part of the main line between

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 ...

for two weeks in April 1995. Journey times increased by 10 to 12 hours. In May 1995, it was announced that the line west of Pinnaroo would be gauge converted from broad gauge to standard gauge. Work on the conversion of the line was delayed until 1996, due to a large grain crop and increased traffic by trains destined for

Tocumwal Tocumwal ( ) is a town in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Berrigan Shire local government area, near the Victorian border. The town is situated on the banks of the Murray River, north of the city of Melbourne ...

and

Yarrawonga Yarrawonga is a town in the Shire of Moira local government area in the Australian state of Victoria. The town is situated on the south bank of the Murray River, the border between Victoria and New South Wales, and is located approximately ...

in regional

that were on the broad gauge network. A small part of the line converted in 1996, was converted back for the 1997 grain harvest. To continue the journey to Adelaide, the grain was

transhipped Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination. One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...

at Tailem Bend. The last broad gauge train operated on 2 July 1998 with the line reopening on 25 November 1998. As the Victorian line remained broad gauge, trains could no longer operate over the entire length with Pinnaroo becoming a

break of gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

point. The line closed in July 2015.

Viterra Viterra began as a Canadian grain handling business, the nation's largest grain handler, with its historic formative roots in prairie grain-handling cooperatives, among them the iconic Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Viterra Inc grew into a global agr ...

announced that no more grain would be carried by rail after 31 July 2015, with the 2015 harvest to be entirely transported by road. As the South Australian line closed, the Victorian government was upgrading part of its end of the line for regional freight.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Closed railway lines in South Australia Railway lines closed in 2015 Standard gauge railways in Australia