Skip to main content

Three guages



It seems slightly mad but each of the Australian colonies chose different railway gauges narrow in Queensland,  standard in NSW, and broad  in Victoria.  South Australia seems to have been even crazier doing all three!  In the south they had the more expensive broad gauge but could not afford to run it into the outback areas so put in narrow gauge up there. Later the narrow gauge lines were replaced by standard gauge.  We returned to Peterborough because is the only place in Australia where you can see all three gauges. 

Comments

  1. I always learn the most interesting facts from your blog (besides the most interesting words :-)).

    This definitely touches my "railwayman's daughter" nerve.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Umm, I am sorry, this could be understood wrong: with interesting words I didn't mean the typo in the title but things like "poached egg daisy" or "quagmire" - you don't learn these at high school.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bill being a train buff from Europe could never understand this stupid system of each state having a different gauge. I agree with him. The narrow gauge in Queensland is plain uncomfortable on long trips. Amazing shot to capture all three in the one place.

    ReplyDelete
  4. More railway stories to come. As for those typos, I know I am a bad typist.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The end

I retire from the workforce this week and to celebrate have decided to retire my current blogs and start afresh with a single consolidated blog -  My Bright Field  - to record the delights of my new life adventure. If you are interested follow me over there.  I will still be Sweet Wayfaring and collecting Royal Hotels.  The delights I discover along the way will appear together with my gardens and towns where I live.

Larras Lee

We passed through Bakers Swamp without noticing anything.  Then reached our last dot on the map for this trip - Larras Lee and saw this.  The roadside monument says: In Memory of  WILLIAM LEE  (1794 - 1870)  of "Larras Lake"  a pioneer of the sheep  and cattle industry  and first member for  Roxburgh under responsible  government (1856 - 1859).  This stone was erected  by his descendants.  --- 1938 --- This is a repost from a few days ago. Thinking I would use this for this week’s Taphophile Tragics post I dug a little further into William Lee’s story, it’s a very colonial Australian one. William was born of convict parents, living his childhood years around the Sydney region. In his early 20s he was issued with some government cattle, recommended as a suitable settler and granted 134 acres at Kelso near Bathurst. He was one of the first in the area and did well. A few years later he was granted a ram and an increase in his land to 300 acres. William developed a r

Coolibah?

Is that a Coolibah tree beside the abandoned house? Every Australian knows about Coolibah trees because the bush ballad Waltzing Matilda is nigh on our unoffical national anthem but most of us live nowhere near the inland where they grow. Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong, Under the shade of a Coolibah tree, And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled, You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me. Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me, And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.