The late Walhalla railway

by John Wells

If you've ever stood on a railway platform with a hot north wind pelting you with dust and sand and grit, or a cold westerly throwing rain right in under the verandah, and fumed because the train was late, spare a thought for the good and the not-so-good people of Walhalla.
The first train there was two decades late.
On August 31, 1900, a bill to authorise construction of the line was complete. But these were very tight times financially, as Victoria struggled out of a deep economic depression. One problem was that the Moe Walhalla Railway Trust had to raise £2000 and deposit it with the Treasury to cover the costs of land acquisition.
In 1902, that money was deposited, but still nothing much seemed to be happening. In the middle of 1904, though, there were a hundred men working on clearing the right of way. The Victorian Railways had sent out a call for bridge piles and 25,000 sleepers. Now things were starting to happen.
The people of Walhalla were happy until, at the end of the year, it was announced that the line would be built only as far as Tyers, as the money had run out.
Now they were furious. Though Premier Tommy Bent was accused of having been merely seeking popularity in starting the line, he said that he would bring in a Bill for further finance in June 1904. The Tyers terminus was "temporary".
Money was set aside to complete earthworks as far as Moondarra in the 1906-07 budget, but there was still not enough money to complete the line. Bent was having trouble getting the Parliament to approve the necessary funds.
The next "temporary" terminus was at Erica, at that time called Upper Moondarra. This might well have been the slowest-built railway, mile-for-mile, in Australia.
Now it was thrown back to the Moe Walhalla Railway Trust to raise the money to complete the line. The trust had to raise another £1500 and a rate was struck for all the properties along the line. In most cases, it was a shilling in the pound valuation, though properties valued at less than £30 were exempt.
To understand the urgency felt in Walhalla, understand that although the deep-lead mines were still - in most cases - profitable, they had cleared all the forest timber around Walhalla for pit props and firewood. The Long Tunnel manager R.E. Dawson had pointed out years earlier that the mine used 18,000 tons of firewood in a year and that figure was growing. The mines were running tramlines far into the bush.
Farmers along the line welcomed the chance to be able to send out their produce more cheaply and in better condition, but there was also a warning that those farmers on the flatter land between Tyers and Moe would face greater competition in their main market of Walhalla.
The rails made their wandering way through very difficult country to at last reach the Thomson. A coach then took passengers the last few rather frightening miles into Walhalla.
The Victorian Railways Grades Book shows the line as having been built in 1910, but that is very misleading. The little narrow-gauge line, with a gauge of two feet and six inches, was still a difficult line to build. It ran out from Moe, over the La Trobe and the Tanjil River and on to Gooding, at the three and a half mile mark. It then started the long and steady climb of about 500 feet to the nine mile mark, before dropping steeply to the Tyers River and then climbing again to Gould, with climb continuing without respite to Moondarra, another 600 feet in only four miles.
That is steep climbing as it is generally considered that a one in 22 grade is about the limit for normal railway working.
From Moondarra, through Watson and the White Rock Siding at the 20-mile mark, the line went up and down a little, with Erica the highest point. Train drivers, at least in those days, loved a level start or a slight downslope to help gain momentum. Heading north toward Walhalla, that was denied them. Of course, coming back was different and there were occasions when the trains went through level crossings at a frightening pace.
The drop down from the 20-mile through Platina and on down to the Thomson River was about 500 feet over four miles, and did not have a straight piece of track in it. Oddly, once over the Thomson, the line climbed again into Walhalla. It seemed reasonably flat when I was last on it.
The first train into Walhalla was a "works" train run by the contractor and, at least officially, carried no passengers. In fact, such trains often carried passengers, more as a matter of lending a hand than as a fare-paying exercise.
The "great day" was May 3, 1910. A train leaving Melbourne at about 7.30am brought the dignitaries to Moe, where they switched to the narrow-gauge train on its siding on the north side of the station. All the usual festivities took place, though the VIPs had to leave before that night's grand banquet, to get the train back to Melbourne in time.
After all, the 22 miles back to Moe took around three hours. There were strict speed limits of 20, 15 and 10 miles an hour covering the entire route. Still, it was a relatively comfortable trip and the train could carry quite significant cargoes into Walhalla.
The timeline was a long one. Agitation for a line began in 1880s, and it was finally approved for construction in 1900. Work started in 1904, progressing at less than a mile a month. The Tyers River was crossed in 1906 and Moondarra was reached 1907. That first official train marked six years of building a narrow-gauge line over a mere 22 miles.
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the train would leave Walhalla at 6.40am, and the return train would leave Moe at 11.50am. This did not leave much time to conduct business in Moe, but it was all about meeting the Melbourne trains.
Unfortunately, too, the line came to Walhalla too late to serve the purposes for which it was built. The line had originally been intended to be a goods line for the most part, but by 1910, Walhalla was starting to decline. This was the year the State Coal Mine started at Wonthaggi and the miners were starting to move down there.
The station building at Walhalla was removed in 1942 and taken to Hartwell station in Melbourne's suburbs. Services were reduced over the years and the line closed in 1954. The rails were taken up and the locomotives and rolling stock mostly, I think, finished up with Puffing Billy.
Don't underestimate the people running the short length of line from Walhalla to the Thomson though. There is still a future to be written there.