• Major projects
  • R6132 Laying pipes across the Darling Ranges, c1902
  • R8135 Across the Trans-Continental Railway, c1917: Laying the railway line
• Primary industry
  • R8006 Pacific Islander labourers clearing land, c1895
  • R8179 Chinese farm workers planting cane, Cairns, 1890s
  • R3951 Maize silo stack, Hilltop, Tilba Tilba, c1895
  • R8118 Wheat Harvesting with Reaper and Binder at Jimbour, Qld, 1899
  • M002600 Three men on horseback, droving sheep with dogs, c1910
  • R3595 Shearing by machinery, 1890-1917
• Small business
  • R9150 Living Hawthorn, 1906: Businesses and street life, Hawthorn
  • R6154 Scenes in Hamilton, c1915 - asset 2
• The clothing industry
  • R7338 For Love or Money, 1983: First women's union
• The post office
  • R2997 Telephonists at the Brisbane telephone exchange, 1910
  • R2418 Yorketown Post Office technology
• Newspaper production
  • R2078 Carting paper to the stores
  • R7073 The Sydney Morning Herald, 1911: Stereotyping at Fairfax
  • R7074 The Sydney Morning Herald, 1911: Preparing the printing machine
  • R2080 Newspaper printing press in action
  • R7075 The Sydney Morning Herald, 1911: Folding mechanism of print machine
• Working with haulage animals
  • M000437 Wagon loaded with wheat, 1880-1900
  • M000808 Bullock team moving a road roller, 1880-1900
  • R6160 Scenes in Hamilton, c1915 - asset 8
• Mining
  • R4735 Dryblowing in Coolgardie, c1894
• Logging
  • R3208 'Geeveston Saw Mills and wagon load', 1890s
• Working at home
  • R3222 Washing clothes in an iron tub, c1890s
  • R3377 'Kitchen at the old King Street bakery'

R8135 Across the Trans-Continental Railway, c1917: Laying the railway line

Educational value

The Trans-Australian Railway was the most important national infrastructure project completed in Australia in the first half of the 20th century. In December 1911 the Australian Government voted to undertake the project at an estimated cost of £4.05 million (equivalent to $200 million in 2007). Work began at Port Augusta in September 1912 and at Kalgoorlie five months later. The 1,692-km line was completed on schedule on 17 October 1917.

Unlike other major infrastructure projects, such as the WA gold fields water pipeline (1898-1903) or the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme (1949-74), both of which relied on materials or expertise from overseas, the railway was largely Australian-made. Commonwealth Railways handled engineering, logistics and carriage construction; the locomotives and most of the steel rails came from New South Wales; and the sleepers were logged in south-west WA.

The clip reveals that the railway was built mostly by the heavy physical labour of hundreds of workers. Large numbers of draught horses, 250 camels and a small number of machines, including steam shovels and the first track-laying machine to be used in Australia, were also utilised in the building of the railway. An average of 1.6 km of line was laid every working day.

The transcontinental line was the result of a promise made at the time of the federation of Australian states in 1901. Physically isolated from the eastern states, WA was reluctant to agree to such a federation. However, Premier Forrest rightly believed that the promise of the transcontinental railway would help to convince the WA electorate. WA agreed to join the federation, although it took nearly 17 years to see the promise of a transcontinental railway come to fruition.

The large number of wooden sleepers seen in the clip gives some indication of the deforestation brought about by the railway project, particularly in the karri forests of south-west WA. The Pemberton sawmill alone supplied 500,000 sleepers. Ironically, karri timber is not suitable for use on or in the ground and it had to be boiled in a mixture of sodium fluoride and either arsenic trioxide or sodium dinitrophenate to extend the life of the sleepers.

The steel rails shown being hauled into position were probably Australian-made, the nation's first iron ore blast furnace and open hearth having come into production at Newcastle in April 1915. The demands of the railway and of the First World War (1914-18) led to the Australian Government booking the first year's production - all 150,000 tonnes of steel rails. The rails seen here weighed 40 kg to the metre and varied in length from 10.05 m to 13.70 m.

This clip comes from an 18-minute documentary produced by Australasian Films, a company established in 1913 to produce Australian-made films. In the documentary as a whole, the cinematographer used a variety of techniques including point-of-view and tracking shots to give the audience the sense of being in the midst of the railway's construction. The scenes in the clip were probably shot somewhere between mid-1914 and mid-1917.

Year level

4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12

Topics

Civil engineering

Railway lines

Steam trains

Learning area

History

Studies of society and environment

Strand

History/Historical knowledge and understandings

Studies of society and environment/Time, continuity and change

Rights

© Curriculum Corporation and australianscreen online, 2009, except where indicated under Acknowledgements