The Kalgoorlie tramway network served the

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 ...

n 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 ...

from 1902 until 1952.

History

In 1899 English company Kalgoorlie Electric Tramway Limited was granted a concession to build a tramway in

. It shared common ownership with Perth Electric Tramways Limited. Construction commenced in February 1902 with the first section between Kalgoorle and

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 ...

opening on 20 May 1902.Kalgoorlie Tramways
Perth Electric Tramway Society The network was progressively expanded to operate the following routes by 1905: *between

and

via **Salisbury Road **Federal Road **Boulder Road *within Kalgoorlie to **Outridge Terrace **Lamington Heights via Maritana Street **Collins Street **

Kalgoorlie railway station Kalgoorlie railway station is the easternmost attended station in Western Australia, located at the eastern terminus of the Eastern Goldfields Railway. It serves the city of Kalgoorlie. Beyond Kalgoorlie, the line continues east as the Trans-Au ...

**Hannan Street **Kalgoorlie Racecourse **South Kalgoorlie *within Boulder to **Kamballie **Fimiston **Hopkins Street **Boulder Racecourse With the goldfields in decline, some lines closed in the 1920s. After a gold-led revival in the 1930s, the network further contracted in the 1940s. On 31 March 1947 the remainder of the network was taken over by the Eastern Goldfields Transport Board. Tram operations ceased on 10 March 1952.

Rolling stock

The initial rolling stock consisted of fifteen single-truck and ten bogie cars manufactured by

JG Brill Company The J. G. Brill Company manufactured tram, streetcars,Young, Andrew D. (1997). ''Veteran & Vintage Transit'', p. 101. St. Louis: Archway Publishing. interurban coaches, motor buses, trolleybuses and passenger car (rail), railroad cars in ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The single truck cars were equipped with two 35 hp

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

motors, and the double-truck cars with four motors of the same capacity. Five of the bogie cars were transferred to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

in 1903, with five replacements delivered to Kalgoorlie in 1904. Seven trailer cars were purchased at the same time. In the 1930s an additional eight trams were bodied locally by the Kalgoorlie Electric Tramway. Two of the trams from the network have been preserved by the

Perth Electric Tramway Society The Perth Electric Tramway Society is a tram preservation society in Perth, Western Australia. It operates a heritage tramway in Whiteman Park. History Following the closure of the Perth trolleybus system in August 1969, the Western Australi ...

at its heritage tramway in

Whiteman Park Whiteman Park is a bushland area located north of Perth, Western Australia. The park is in the suburb of Whiteman, Western Australia, Whiteman, in the Swan Valley (Western Australia), Swan Valley in the upper reaches of the Swan River (Weste ...

.Tram & Trolleybus Fleet

A third has been preserved by the

Sydney Tramway Museum The Sydney Tramway Museum, operated by the South Pacific Electric Railway Co-operative Society, is Australia's oldest tramway museum and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It is located at Loftus in the southern suburbs of Sydney. History ...

References

External links

{{TramsAustralia, state=collapsed City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder Public transport in regional Western Australia

3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Australia 1902 establishments in Australia 1952 disestablishments in Australia History of rail transport in Western Australia