The Swan View Tunnel is a former railway tunnel located on the southern side of the Jane Brook valley in the outer

Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...

suburb of Swan View in the

John Forrest National Park John Forrest National Park is a national park in the Darling Scarp, east of Perth, Western Australia. Proclaimed as a national park in November 1900, it was the first national park in Western Australia and the second in Australia after Royal Na ...

on the edge of the

Darling Scarp The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to th ...

. After its closure as a railway tunnel, it reopened as part of the John Forrest Heritage Trail, a

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. Prior to the construction of tunnels and the sinking of the Subiaco railway station in 1999, the Swan View Tunnel was the only tunnel on the Western Australian railway network.

Construction

Swan View Tunnel was built on an alignment which replaced the original Eastern Railway passing through Smiths Mill, (now

Glen Forrest A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrowe ...

), and Mundaring. The project to build the new line, including the Swan View Tunnel, was managed by the

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra respons ...

Engineer-in-Chief, O'Connor. The tunnel was erroneously stated in contemporary reporting to be 13

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long, which is . Modern authorities give the length as . Inspection of open source aerial imagery confirms that the tunnel is in length. Work began in 1894, with the two bores meeting on 18 April 1895. The tunnel opened on 22 February 1896.Eastern Railway Deviation
Heritage Council of WA The unstable nature of the jointed granite, along with clay seams, caused difficulties during construction of the tunnel. A masonry-lined face prevented rock falls, but reduced the inner diameter. The deviation from the original railway line, and the tunnel in particular, was a "significant technical feat for the time";

Engineers Australia Engineers Australia (EA) is an Australian professional body and not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the community. Engineers Australia is Australia's recognized or ...

awarded the deviation an Engineering Heritage Marker as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program.

Problems

The tunnel's small diameter combined with the steep gradient (1:49) caused smoke accumulation. Incidents involving near-asphyxiation of train crews started in 1896, and continued throughout the tunnel's operating life. The first serious incident of this nature was in 1903. The tunnel's design was incompatible with the

ASG ASG may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Abu Sayyaf Group, a militant Islamist group based in the Philippines * Albright Stonebridge Group (est. 2009), a global business strategy firm based in Washington, D.C., United States * Avia Solu ...

class Garratt steam locomotives used by the Western Australian Government Railways in the 1940s. The subsequent Royal Commission into the ASG dealt with design of the locomotive, and the very dangerous clearances. The worst accident in the tunnel was on 5 November 1942, when both drivers and firemen were overcome by

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...

, one driver dying, when a fully laden double-header train passed through the tunnel at walking pace. Further cases occurred in 1943 and 1944 on up trains. Subsequent industrial strikes, a Royal Commission and union agitation for the locomotives' withdrawal was a significant issue in the 1940s.

Deviation

Between 1934 and 1945, a signal cabin was located at Tunnel Junction, on the eastern end of the tunnel, for managing the transition from the tunnel's single line to the dual lines of the system. The single line tunnel was considered unsafe for eastbound (climbing) trains, and a diversion was added on the northern side of the hill that the tunnel passed through. It was known as the deviation, and due to rock instability included a fence of 16 wires to be used as a detector of rock falls. The diversion was completed on 25 November 1945.

Railway closure

The railway line through the tunnel was lifted after the closing of the older and steeper Eastern Railway and the opening of the Avon Valley diversion that opened in February 1966. After the 1960s, gates/doors were put at either end of the tunnel though these were later removed. The tunnel remains intact and has reopened as part of the John Forrest Heritage Trail, part of the larger Railway Reserve Heritage Trail.Railway Reserve Heritage Trail
Shire of Mundaring During the 1990s, the government authority in which the tunnel land was vested, the Department of Environment and Conservation allowed a number of night time "ghost walks" in the tunnel as part of the Hills Forest programmes.

References

Bibliography

* *{{cite book, author=Watson, Lindsay, title=The railway history of Midland Junction : commemorating the centenary of Midland Junction, 1895–1995, location=Swan View, W.A , year=1995 , isbn=0-646-24461-2, publisher=L & S Drafting in association with the Shire of Swan and the Western Australian Light Railway Preservation Association Eastern Railway (Western Australia) Swan View, Western Australia Tunnels completed in 1895 Railway tunnels in Western Australia Disused tunnels in Australia Recipients of Engineers Australia engineering heritage markers