The Portland railway line is a railway line in south-western

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 ...

, Australia. It runs from the main

Western standard gauge line The Western standard gauge railway line is a standard-gauge railway line in western Victoria, Australia. Completed in 1995, it forms part of the Melbourne–Adelaide rail corridor and serves as the principal interstate rail link between Vict ...

at Maroona through Hamilton to the port town of Portland.

History

The line was built as ( broad gauge) from Ararat to Maroona, Hamilton, Heywood and Portland, and opened in 1877. It was converted to standard gauge in 1995. Freight operator

Pacific National Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock (owned by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian Governments) were combined with Freig ...

indefinitely suspended all rail services to Portland in 2004, affecting local companies including Portland Aluminium, transport company

Kalari A kalari is a gymnasium or training space primarily associated with the martial art of Kalaripayattu. The word ''kalari'' comes from Malayalam. In the past, village schools in Kerala, typically run by the traditional astrologer families, were kn ...

, and freight broker Anchor Logistics. Portland container traffic had been conveyed between Maroona and Portland on grain services twice a week, but Pacific National said that the drought meant there were no trains to attach the loading to. On the route the price differential between rail and road was $12.97 per tonne in rail's favour. Pacific National closed their Portland operations in March 2008, with GrainCorp leasing a limited number of locomotives and rolling stock from them, but favour transporting grain to the Port of Geelong instead. In July 2008, the Victorian Government announced a $15 million upgrade to the line, raising maximum speeds to 80 kilometres an hour as they were previously. The

Australian Rail Track Corporation The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is an Australian Government-owned statutory corporation. It operates one of the largest rail networks in the nation spanning 8,500km across five states, 39 worksites and more than 50 First Nations. ...

signed a 50-year lease to manage the line and was to start the upgrade within months. The line was finally transferred from V/Line to the ARTC on 22 March 2009. In September 2008, it was announced that freight traffic would restart, with operator El Zorro signing a multi-million deal with miner

Iluka Resources Iluka Resources is an Australian-based resources company, specialising in mineral sands exploration, project development, operations and marketing. Iluka is the largest producer of zircon and titanium dioxide-derived rutile and synthetic rutil ...

to carry containerised mineral sands from Portland in the south-west to

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 ...

, with Iluka saying rail transport was cheaper than road. The train ran on an irregular basis. In March 2010, the State Government announced a $3.97 million grant for the construction of a rail loading facility alongside the Iluka Resources mineral sand separation plant near the Hamilton railway station for the rail transport of heavy mineral concentrate extracted from the Iluka mine site at

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 ...

via the standard gauge Murtoa - Hopetoun railway. Grain trains on the line restarted with the 2010 harvest, with

AWB Limited AWB Limited was a major grain marketing organisation based in Australia. Founded in 1939 by the Government of Australia as the Australian Wheat Board, in 1999 it was sold off by the government, initially to be owned by wheat growers. It was acqu ...

and its rail partner El Zorro using the GrainCorp terminal to load 26,250 tonnes of

canola Close-up of canola blooms Canola flower Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils. There are both edible and industrial forms produced from rapeseed, the seed of several cultivars of the plant family Brassicaceae. Historically, ...

bound for Pakistan on 4 March 2010.

Branch lines

A short lived branch line was opened from

Dunkeld Dunkeld (, sco, Dunkell, from gd, Dùn Chailleann, "fort of the Caledonians") is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The location of a historic cathedral, it lies on the north bank of the River Tay, opposite Birnam. Dunkeld lies close to t ...

Penshurst Penshurst is a historic village and civil parish located in a valley upon the northern slopes of the Kentish Weald, at the confluence of the River Medway and the River Eden, within the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The village is situ ...

in 1890 but closed only eight years later. A branch line was opened from Hamilton north to

Cavendish Cavendish may refer to: People * The House of Cavendish, a British aristocratic family * Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), British poet, philosopher, and scientist * Cavendish (author) (1831–1899), pen name of Henry Jones, English au ...

between 1910 and 1920. This was connected to the Horsham - Balmoral railway in the 1920s, which itself connected back to the main Serviceton line. This line was closed south of Noradjuha, (just south of East Natimuk) in 1979. A branch line from Hamilton north-west to Coleraine was opened in 1882, being closed in 1977. A branch line was opened between Hamilton and

Koroit Koroit is a small rural town in western Victoria, Australia a few kilometres north of the Princes Highway, north-west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Moyne local government area located amidst rolling green past ...

in the 1890, where it connected to the South West line via Warrnambool, but was closed in 1977. A branch line was opened from Branxholme north-west to Casterton in 1884. This line was closed in 1977. A branch line was opened from Heywood west to

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...

in 1917. Service was suspended in 1995 due to the standardisation of the Maroona - Portland line. There are regular calls for the Heywood - Mount Gambier line to be standardised.

Services

The gauge conversion of the Mildura line to standard gauge in 2020 has resulted in the resumption of seasonal grain trains from the Wimmera and Mallee regionals to Portland. Prior to that, the only regular service on the line was the thrice weekly El Zorro containerised mineral sands train from Portland. The last passenger train between Ararat and Portland was on 12 September 1981, operated by a DRC railcar. A new passenger station at Portland had been officially opened on 29 June 1968.

References

External links

Information about the line at Vicsig
{{Victorian Railway Lines, Main Railway lines in Victoria (Australia) Railway lines opened in 1877 Portland, Victoria 1877 establishments in Australia Standard gauge railways in Australia Transport in Barwon South West (region)