Ballarat Tramline Plaque and Wheel (Locomotive)

Statement of Significance

Ballarat Tramline Plaque & Wheel (Locomotive) has cultural heritage significance as a memorial to the introduction of new technology in the timber industry and the expansion of the state’s infrastructure.

Physical Description

Engine wheel and concrete base, with plaque. grounds of Wonnerup House.

History

The memorial commemorates the centenary of the first railway in Western Australia. The railway ran from Lockeville, Wonnerup to Yoganup and was operated by the WA Timber Company and opened in 1871. The Ballarat engine was the first train to be used in W.A. It was manufactured in Ballarat, Victoria in 1871. It was used by the West Australian Timber Co. for 15 years at Lockeville, Wonnerup to Yoganup, and eventually brought into Busselton for display and interpretive purposes. The commercial harvesting of fine hardwood timbers from the forests nearby Busselton began in the late 1840s with the logs being shipped from McGibbon’s jetty near Quindalup. As the demand for timber increased its viability as an export commodity was soon recognized by the Colony’s new Governor, Frederick Aloysius Weld, who arrived in 1869. The Jarrah, or Western Australian Mahogany, is only found in this Colony; it is unrivalled for railway sleepers; it is extraordinarily durable; in water it resists the attacks of the Teredo Navalis, and on land those of the white ant. There is a very large demand for it from India and the neighboring Colonies, which cannot be supplied from want of facilities for conveying the timber from the forests, and for shipping it.49 Weld wanted to encourage large-scale development of the State’s massive timber resources by replacing the existing system of short-term licenses with long-term leases or concessions that would attract outside investors, in particular from Victoria where considerable wealth had been generated from the gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s.50 Following negotiations with the syndicates involved, the Home Office granted three concessions. Each company had to provide its own mill, railway and port for shipping the timber. The West Australian Timber Company (referred to as the Ballarat Company in one contemporary account)51 was granted a concession of 181,500 acres at Yokanup (now referred to as Yoganup) with its seaport at Lockeville. The other syndicates were the Canning Jarrah Timber Company that was granted a concession on the Canning River where an existing wharf was used, and the Rockingham Jarrah Company’s concession at Jarrahdale with its port at Rockingham. The agreement between the West Australian Timber Company and the government was signed on 29 July 1871. John McNeil operated as the company’s agent in Western Australia and was based at Lockeville, where he oversaw the construction of the jetty and railway, which would have included the building of the railway bridge over the Vasse estuary in order to take the line across to the jetty. To date, no reference has been found for the construction of the railway bridge that carried the rail line across the narrow channel (where the Vasse estuary joins the Wonnerup Inlet) to the jetty. It was a matter of local satisfaction that the Vasse could boast having the first locomotive and railway line in the State. In describing how the mill was progressing, a ‘correspondent’ in the 21 April 1871 edition of The Inquirer remarked: We are anxiously looking for the arrival of the vessel from Melbourne bringing the locomotive for the W. A. Timber Coy railway. The works are progressing rapidly and it is rumored and generally believed, that His Excellency the Governor will pay us a visit for the purpose of opening the railway and saw mills on the 1st May. This will be a happy May Day for us and it may be easily imagined that we feel no small satisfaction in having this first railroad of the Colony within our district. Governor Weld officially opened the railway line on 23rd December 1871, while the Jarrahdale-Rockingham line was opened in November 1872. The Mayor of Melbourne originally named the locomotive ‘Ballarat’ after the original spelling of the town of Ballarat where it was built by James Hunt at the Victoria Foundry (now Phoenix Foundry). ‘It had a horsepower of 16 and had two cylinders of 7 inch diameter and a 14 inch stroke. Three wagons without springs were used on the timber train.’52 The timber had been hauled along the rails, originally made of jarrah, by horses before the arrival of the locomotive. Horses and later bullocks continued to be used in conjunction with the engine.

Condition

Site Only

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update