Beaufort railway station is located on the Ararat line in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It serves the town of Beaufort, and it opened on 11 August 1874.

History

Beaufort station opened on 11 August 1874, when the railway line from

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

opened. It remained a terminus until 7 April 1875, when the line was extended to Ararat. Like the town itself, the station was named after

Sir Francis Beaufort Sir Francis Beaufort ( ; 27 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer and naval officer who created the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale. Early life Francis Beaufort was descended from French Protestant Hugueno ...

, a

hydrographer Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primary ...

and

rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

of the

British Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. On 14 September 1988, it was disestablished as a

staff Staff may refer to: Pole * Walking staff, an instrument used for balance when walking * Staff, a weapon used in stick-fighting ** Quarterstaff, a European pole weapon * Staff of office, a pole that indicates a position * Staff (railway signalling) ...

station, with the

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. In North America, a set of signalling appliances and tracks inte ...

and

signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

s abolished. The electric staff sections

Trawalla Trawalla is a town in central Western Victoria, Australia, located on the Western Highway, west of Ballarat and west of Melbourne, in the Shire of Pyrenees. At the , Trawalla and the surrounding agricultural area had a population of 224. Traw ...

- Beaufort and Beaufort -

Buangor Buangor is a town in western Victoria. It is about west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2021 census, Buangor had a population of 112. Buangor Post Office opened on 25 March 1863. The town has a primary school, which was built in 1878 ...

were also abolished, replaced with the electric staff section Trawalla - Buangor. In May 1989, two loop lines that formed a

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of Track (rail transport), tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for k ...

were removed. In October 1993, station staff were withdrawn, with platform seats also removed in that month. On 27 May 1994, the station closed when road coaches replaced services between Ballarat and Ararat. In 2000, the station building and signal box underwent a restoration, to make it more suitable for community use. By August 2003, upgrades to reopen the station were complete. On 11 July 2004, the station reopened when

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates Regional rail, regional passenger rail and Intercity bus service, coach services in the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria. It provides passenger train services on five Commuter rail, ...

passenger services to Ararat resumed. In October 2014, the former station building was converted into a community arts centre, whilst the former

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before, after, and during loading to and unloading from a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, althou ...

is currently used as a steam-era museum. Disused stations Burrumbeet and Trawalla are located between Beaufort and

Wendouree Wendouree () is a large suburb on the north western rural-urban fringe of the city of Ballarat, in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is the second most populated suburb in the City of Ballarat with a total of 10,376 inhabitants at ...

, while disused station Buangor is located between Beaufort and Ararat.

Platforms and services

Beaufort has one platform and is served by

Ararat line trains.Ararat - Melbourne
Public Transport Victoria Platform 1: * services to Ararat and

Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...

, one daily shuttle service to

Transport links

operates a road coach service via Beaufort station: *

–

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

via Ararat, Stawell,

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

and

Dimboola Dimboola is a town in the Shire of Hindmarsh in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia, 334 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. History Situated on the Wimmera River, Dimboola was previously known as 'Nine Creeks'. Following a survey ...

References

External links

Victorian Railway Stations gallery

When there were Stations gallery

Melway map
at street-directory.com.au {{Public Transport Victoria railway stations, Western=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Australia opened in 1874 Regional railway stations in Victoria (state) Shire of Pyrenees