102 Australian Geographic
M
OUNT LYELL’S copper smelters
were originally separated from the
port of Strahan, from where it
transported its product, by 20km of muddy
packhorse track through dense forest,
so surveyors scouted out a railway route.
The Queen and King river valleys were
suitable but King River gorge was too steep
for conventional technology. The answer
was an Abt rack-and-pinion railway.
Invented by Swiss engineer Carl Abt,
it has two steam engines and a pair of
pinion wheels driven by separate steam
cylinders. When the steep rack section is
met, the pinion wheel cogs engage offset
teeth on the centre rack rail for a secure,
continuous grip. It was built from 1894 by
more than 5000 labourers working six days
a week often in cold, rainy and muddyconditions. Trees were cut by hand and
timber spans squared at riverbank mills
were dragged along tramways and corduroy
roads paved with tree trunks to build bridges.
Construction camps, such as Spur, were
places of leaky tents, bad food and sly grog
shops: workers brewed sassafras bark beer
they called tanglefoot. In winter 1895 they
went on strike against long hours, low pay
and high provision costs. Contractors
telegraphed for replacement workers from
Hobart, but storms prevented shipping, so,
already behind schedule, they were forced
to give in to demands.
Abt Locomotive No 1, built in Glasgow,
was shipped in pieces to Strahan and
arrived in 1896, without any assembly
instructions. Most railway workers had
never seen one before, but within a monthit was on the track being tested, and on
18 March 1897 Mount Lyell’s 23km
narrow-gauge railway officially opened- Australia’s steepest at the time,
with 48 bridges and countless cuttings.
Small railway settlements and farms
developed along places such as Rinadeena,
Teepookana and Lowana. The Kerrison
family, with 10 kids, operated a dairy farm
uphill from Dubbil Barril station. Children
from these remote communities who rode
the line to school at Strahan were the
“train kids”. Few had shoes and their
packed lunches were often just bread and
jam or, in winter, bread and muttonbird.
The railway also transported mail,
supplies and visitors. At its peak, a
workforce maintained 19 locomotives and
more than 100km of track. Eventually,
faced with an ageing system, Mount Lyell
decided to haul freight to Strahan by road,
and in 1963 rail operations ceased.
In 2002, after the building and recon-
struction of 39 bridges, 35km of line with
three Abt locos opened, the country’s only
operating heritage rack railway. Its steepest
grade is 1:16 from Halls Creek to
Rinadeena. Along with a steam train ride,
journeys on the West Coast Wilderness
Railway can now involve a guided tour of
Lake Margaret Power Station, whitewater
rafting, a helicopter flight, gold panning and
Christmas in July...but no sassafras beer.
For timetable details: wcwr.com.au
WEST COAST
WILDERNESS RAILWAY
“Pick ’er up
and pull ’er into
the yard,” says
engine driver
Barry Walding,
as he approaches
Queenstown
Station a er a Rack
and Gorge tour.At Lynchford Station,the
fi rst stop out of Queenstown,
engine drivers tend to the
steam engine.