Kalgoorlie railway station is the easternmost attended station in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, located at the eastern terminus of the

Eastern Goldfields Railway The Eastern Goldfields Railway, was built in the 1890s by the Western Australian Government Railways to connect Perth with the Eastern Goldfields at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. It is a part of the interstate standard gauge railway between Per ...

. It serves the city of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

. Beyond Kalgoorlie, the line continues east as the

Trans-Australian Railway The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta railway station, Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie railway station, Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. Built to standa ...

Establishment

Construction of the railway station and yard was begun in the late 1890s, as part of the extension of the

from Coolgardie in January 1897. The station was formally opened by the Governor of Western Australia, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Gerard Smith KCMG, at a ceremony held on the station platform on 8 September 1896. In the early stages of the development of railways in the

Eastern Goldfields The Eastern Goldfields is part of the Western Australian Goldfields in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, covering the present and former gold-mining area east of Perth. Extent and name origin The region encompasses the to ...

, it was the junction for the following railways: *Kalgoorlie to

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

, the Boulder Townsite Loop railway line, opened 8 November 1897 *Kalgoorlie to Kanowna, the Kalgoorlie to Kanowna railway line, opened 6 December 1897 *Kalgoorlie to Menzies, on the Kalgoorlie to Leonora railway line, opened 24 March 1898 In 1917, Kalgoorlie became a

break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally canno ...

station when the

Commonwealth Railways The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australian Railway, Trans-Australia and Adelaide-Darwin railway, Port Augusta to Darwin railways. In 1 ...

' standard gauge

from

Port Augusta Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...

opened. This ceased on 3 August 1968, when the Eastern Goldfields Railway was gauge converted.

Loop line

Surveyed in 1899, the line went from Kalgoorlie station. The platform linking to the line was at the east end and on the south side of the main platform. Due to costs and passenger decline, in 1920, some of the stations listed below were reduced in status by ceasing to be booking stations: Hannan Street, Golden Gate, Brown Hill and Trafagar. In 1921, fares increased. In 1930, the passenger service was closed.

Near Kalgoorlie station

* Maritana Street Bridge * Victoria Street * Hannan Street * Hanbury Street – the junction

Western side

* Robert Street * Coombe Street * Halfway * Kallaroo

Inner western side

* Hainault * Fimiston * Horseshoe

Boulder Loop

* Golden Gate – junction * Dunlop Crossing * Clancy Street * Boulder railway station * Forrest Street * Ivanhoe Crossing * Kamballie – junction

Eastern side

* Trafalgar * Hillend * Brown Hill * Croesus * Williamstown

Platform

The main platform was at one point, the longest in Western Australia at 527 metres. It was eclipsed by the new East Perth Terminal platform, built for the 1969-70 extension of standard gauge into Perth. At each end of the main platform used by the ''

Indian Pacific The ''Indian Pacific'' is a weekly experiential tourism-oriented passenger train service that runs in Australia's east–west rail corridor between Sydney, on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and Perth, on the shore of the Indian Ocean – ...

'' are bay platforms; the three to the east (adjacent to the former water tank and signal box) were where Boulder and Brown Hill loop lines and '' Trans-Australian'' passenger services arrived; and the western one is where the current ''

Prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * ''Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ra ...

'' services terminate. The eastern bays gradually fell out of use after the withdrawal of passenger services on the Boulder and Brown Hill loop lines, and the extension of the standard gauge line and ''Trans-Australian'' train to Perth.

Location and commemorations

Due to it being the western terminus of the

, the station has been the location of a number of commemorations and ceremonies from the opening of that railway in 1917 and since.

Services

Kalgoorlie is served by the Transwa ''Prospector'' rural train service and the ''

''. It was also previously served by the ''Kalgoorlie Express'', ''

The Westland ''The Westland'' was the name given in 1938 to the overnight train operated by the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) with sitting and sleeping cars between Perth and Kalgoorlie railway station, Kalgoorlie, where it connected with ...

'' and '' Trans Australian''. The ''Prospector'' service runs to and from

East Perth East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

once or twice each day.

''Indian Pacific''

The

also stops here. It runs once a week each way between

and Sydney Central.

References

External links

* {{Journey Beyond railway stations, Indian Pacific=y, state=collapsed Transwa railway stations Railway stations in Australia opened in 1896 State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder