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Mount Barker railway station is a preserved railway station in South Australia on the 1600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge Victor Harbor line, formerly operated by South Australian Railways and its successor, Australian National. With only broad gauge track running through the station, it has been disconnected from the Adelaide metropolitan network since the Adelaide-Melbourne line was converted to 1435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge in 1995. Since then the station has been the headquarters of the Australian Railway Historical Society, a not-for-profit organisation trading as SteamRanger, that operates tourist trains mainly between Mount Barker and Victor Harbor.

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Mount Barker railway station
General information
Location	Druids Avenue Mount Barker
Coordinates	35°03′56″S 138°51′46″E[1]
Operated by	SteamRanger; formerly South Australian Railways then Australian National Railways Commission
Line(s)	Victor Harbor line
Bus routes	T840, 835, 835A, 837, 838, 838H, 839, 839R, 840X, 852, 853, 860F, 864, 864F, 864H, 882, 886, 887, 890
Construction
Parking	yes
Bicycle facilities	yes
History
Opened	1883
Closed	1984
Services
Preceding station South Australian Railways Following station Littlehampton Closed towards Adelaide Victor Harbor railway line Philcox Hill towards Victor Harbor

History

In 1884, a 80.6 kilometres (50 miles) branch line was completed between Mount Barker Junction and Victor Harbor. Substantial stations were erected at Mount Barker, Strathalbyn and Goolwa. The Mount Barker station building, opened on 27 November 1883, was built from distinctive Aldgate freestone; it included the stationmaster's quarters and a ticketing office.

Two years later, the first railway link between two colonial capital cities in Australia – Adelaide, South Australia and Melbourne, Victoria – was completed, to which the branch was connected at Mount Barker Junction, 5 route kilometres (3 miles) to the north of Mount Barker station.

Regular services operated until passenger numbers declined in the late 20th century with increasing ownership of motor cars, and were terminated in April 1984. In 1989, a not-for-profit railway preservation organisation, SteamRanger, was established by the Australian Railway Historical Society to operate its heritage train tours from Adelaide to Victor Harbor through the station. Six years later, as part of the One Nation infrastructure program, the main line between Adelaide and Melbourne was converted to standard gauge, leaving Steamranger's depot at Dry Creek in metropolitan Adelaide isolated. In a major project, all of SteamRanger's locomotives, rolling stock and infrastructure were moved to Mount Barker station. As part of the move, the District Council of Mount Barker renovated the station building, at the time derelict, to become SteamRanger's base.

As a result of rapid growth and traffic congestion on the South Eastern Freeway, sporadic calls have been made since the late 2010s to extend the former passenger rail service beyond Belair to Mount Barker. However, a 2022 government-sponsored report rejected the prospect of opening a train service, arguing that reliability and travel time would "not come close" to buses and cars.[2]

References

External links

• Mount Barker station SteamRanger

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