The Flinders Bay Branch Railway, also known as the Boyanup to Flinders Bay Section ran between Boyanup and

Flinders Bay Flinders Bay is a bay and locality that is immediately south of the townsite of Augusta, and close to the mouth of the Blackwood River. The locality and bay lies to the north east of Cape Leeuwin which is the most south-westerly mainland poin ...

, in South Western

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

. The section from Flinders Bay to

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...

has now been converted into a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetca ...

for bushwalkers and cyclists, called the Wadandi Trail.

History

The first section of this line was constructed between Karridale and Boranup in May 1884, forming part of the M.C. Davies Timber horse-drawn tramway system, which soon ran between the jetties at Hamelin Bay and

. Access to both jetties allowed timber to be loaded onto ships in all seasons, as the original west-facing Hamelin Bay jetty typically experienced poor conditions during the winter. Some parts of the system were originally constructed using wooden rails and along steep alignments, oriented towards lower cost, rough workings of the timber tramway system. Locomotives were used instead of horses from 1895 and by the 1900 the network spanned from Flinders Bay to

Margaret River The Margaret River is a river in southwest Western Australia. In a small catchment, it is the eponym of the town and tourist region of Margaret River. The river arises from a catchment of just 40 square kilometres in the Whicher Range. T ...

. Following the opening of the Bunbury to Boyanup Railway in 1891, a branch from Boyanup to

was constructed by Smith & Tims, opening on 21 November 1894. The railway between Margaret River and Flinders Bay was purchased by the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

in 1912 and was run as an isolated system by the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tan ...

for a few years. After some years of no service, the railway south of Witchcliffe was rehabilitated, including the construction of a realignment north of Jarrahdene. It was formally taken over 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 ...

(WAGR) and opened for service on 1 April 1925. This followed the opening of the WAGR line between Busselton and Witchcliffe (along a new alignment between Margaret River and Witchcliffe) on 20 October 1924. Although a slow service due to the lighter rails and steep gradients, the branch was important for the dairy industry in the region. Usually known as the ''Flinders Bay branch'', it ran until 1957. It was one of three branches in the WAGR system that relied on the important Msa garratt steam engine to be able to move the loads over steep and difficult gradients.
Most of the railway

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondary ...

and structures were removed close to closure. The Flinders Bay engine shed, and some parts of the railway yard were not immediately removed and remained intact until the late 1950s. A limited number of photographs exist of the stopping platform at Flinders Bay, but very few exist of the Flinders Bay Jetty. At one stage in the 1970s, Railway Bus Drivers had the opportunity to stay overnight in a small railway cottage/shed at the bay-side edge of the Flinders Bay yard.

Alignment

As operated by the WAGR, the line was from Boyanup to Flinders Bay. Only the first section of the line (Boyanup to RGC) remains in place, although disused, with few changes since it was last operated.Arc Infrastructure Network Map
Arc Infrastructure The remainder of the line has been lifted, although the rail reserve as far as Busselton remains under the control of the Public Transport Authority and is theoretically available for future rail uses.Public Transport Authority Network Map
Public Transport Authority Like all railways outside of

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 ...

, the line was not electrified and predominantly single-track, with passing loops at various locations. The remnant section, from Boyanup to RGC, is controlled by

Arc Infrastructure Arc Infrastructure (previously known as Brookfield Rail and WestNet Rail) is a transport infrastructure owner and access provider in Western Australia with a long-term lease on the network from the Government of Western Australia. It operates a ...

. Heading south west from Boyanup, the line traverses predominantly agricultural land to a few kilometres beyond Capel, where it terminates at the former

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 ruti ...

RGC site. From here, the line continued through a mix of agricultural and forested land to Busselton. Part of the corridor west of Wonnerup has been used to accommodate the widening of the

Bussell Highway Bussell Highway is a generally north–south highway in the South West region of Western Australia. The highway links the city of Bunbury with the town of Augusta and is approximately in length. The highway is signed ''State Route 10'', exce ...

. Within Busselton the line ran past the

jetty A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

and along the foreshore, turning south through what is now the Busselton Health Campus. Heading west again along the route of what is now the Bussell Highway, the line served Vasse and Quindalup before turning south towards Flinders Bay. The line passed through forested and agricultural areas, including several municipally heritage-registered mill sites in the M.C. Davies timber concession area south of Margaret River.

Branches

This line was the first branch from the Northcliffe line, at Boyanup, linking Busselton to the WAGR network. The only WAGR line to branch from this one is the Nannup Branch, which runs south from Wonnerup to Nannup. This section of this line from Wonnerup to Maryvale follows the alignment of Western Australia's first railway - the Ballaarat Tramway.

Timber Tramways

Several timber mills used to operate along the railway, each with their own access to the mainline. Many of these mills operated extensive timber tramways that fed significant quantities of timber to the railway. The section from Witchcliffe to Flinders Bay was originally built as an M.C. Davies horse-drawn tramway, before being bought by the Government and upgraded to a WAGR line in 1925.

Wadandi Track

In 2012 the

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

-based firm Mulloway was creating an interpretation plan for the Busselton to Flinders Bay Railway Rail Trail project, that would convert the former railway reserve into a recreational, tourism, and

educational trail An educational trail (or sometimes educational path), nature trail or nature walk is a specially developed hiking trail or footpath that runs through the countryside, along which there are marked stations or stops next to points of natural, techn ...

. Initially the track was called the Rails to Trails track. The

City of Busselton The City of Busselton is a local government area in the South West region of Western Australia, approximately south of Perth, the state capital. The city covers an area of and had a population of 40,640 as at the 2021 Census. It contains two ...

and the

Shire of Augusta–Margaret River The Shire of Augusta Margaret River is a local government area in the south-west corner of the South West region of Western Australia, approximately south of Perth. The shire covers an area of and had a population of over 14,000 at the 2016 ...

developed the rail alignment into the Wadandi Track rail trail, finishing on the Busselton

foreshore The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...

. The sections from Busselton Jetty to the Carbunup River east of Marybrook and Cowaramup to Witchcliffe were completed in August 2020. The track takes its name from the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of the area, the

Wadandi The Wadandi, also spelt Wardandi and other variants, are an Aboriginal people of south-western Western Australia, one of fourteen language groups of the Noongar peoples. Name There are at least three theories about the meaning of the tribal et ...

people, whose name means "people of the sea". With a length of , the track is open to bushwalkers and

cyclist Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

Notes

References

* Higham, Geoffrey ''Where was that? An Historical Gazetteer of Western Australia'', Winthrop, W.A. Geoproject Solutions Pty Ltd. {{ISBN, 0-646-44186-8 Closed railway lines in Western Australia 1957 disestablishments in Australia 1925 establishments in Australia Flinders Bay, Western Australia