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The Cootamundra to Gundagai railway was a railway line in country New South Wales, joining the towns of Cootamundra and Gundagai, via Brawlin, Muttama, and Coolac, completed in 1885.
Survey of the line was completed in 1882, but had to be repeated, as all the plans and calculations were among the millions of documents lost in the Garden Palace fire. The line was completed in 1885; some manpower, machinery and materials were borrowed to assist in re-establishing the main line after the Salt Clay Creek railway disaster of January. The extension to Tumut (which at the time had strong claims to become the nation's capital) was completed in 1903.[1] A branch line ran from Coolac to Adjungbilly.
The line from Sydney branched a little north of the Cootamundra railway station, then ran parallel with the Great Southern Railway for about half a mile to the 253.5 mile (from Sydney) peg, then veered to the left, crossing the Cootamundry Creek on a timber viaduct.[2]
ARHS says it branched at 267mi3ch, diverged, crossed Muttama, Conkey's (abattoir) dead-end siding 268mi05ch., 3-mile tank 270mi02ch. Brawlin platform at 273mi74ch. Level crossing gates at 274mi74ch. Muttama at 280mi13ch. Dead end siding. Level crossing gates at Tumut end. Bongalong platform 281mi15ch. (opened 1887 as Thomas Broughton's siding but soon changed). Wambidgee 284mi77ch. previously named Mooni Mooni and located 284mi70ch. Line crossed Hume Highway before Coolac 290mi07ch. Pettit's 292mi20ch. Mingay 293mi34ch. Ball's platform 293mi75ch. Gudagai Stockyards 299mi64ch.
In June 1952 the Muttama Creek reached a record height at two feet above the Hume Highway at Coolac. A culvert at Mingay and railway bridge between Coolac and Wambidgee were swept away, and about 120 feet of line undermined.[3]
Another storm in 1984 seriously damaged the line and it was never restored. The Gundagai railway station complex has been substantially restored as an historic structure. Very little of the line remains. Proposals to create a pedestrian and cyclist rail trail between Coolac and Cootamundra, similar to that between Rosewood and Tumbarumba, have been resisted by landowners.
References
edit- ^ "Gundagai to Tumut Railway". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 20, 464. New South Wales, Australia. 10 October 1903. p. 9. Retrieved 17 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Railway Progress". The Evening News (Sydney). No. 5799. New South Wales, Australia. 17 December 1885. p. 6. Retrieved 16 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Murrumbidgee". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 35, 722. New South Wales, Australia. 18 June 1952. p. 1. Retrieved 16 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
R Scrymgeour. "The Rise and Fall of the Cootamundra – Tumut Branch line: Part 3". Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin (Febuary 1992). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)