134 • SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



countries, which must be removed if the white AustraUan poUcy is 

 to be maintained, as I personally hope it will be. It is impossible to 

 expect any satisfactory development of the natural resources of the 

 tropical areas oi Australia, and the nnich-needed closer settlement, 

 until there ai"e safe and speedy means of communication between this 

 part of Australia and the southern and eastern areas ; this can only 

 be provided by railways. 



Unification of Gauge. 



When railway constructrion was started about ,1854 — pracitically 

 simultaneously in New South Wales and Victoria — it was intended to 

 adopt the 5 ft. 3 in. .gauge in both States, but a change of professional 

 adviser at Sydney brought about a change of view, and the New South 

 Wales Government decided to adopt the standard 4 ft. 8^ in. gauge, 

 and this gauge lias been maintained up to the present date on all the 

 New South Wales railways. Victoria, on the other hand, adopted the 

 5 ft. 3 in. gauge from the first, and has, with the exception of a trifling 

 length of 2 ft. 6 in. gauge track, built all her State lines on that gauge. 

 South Australia, when railway construction was begun in 1855, also 

 chose the 5 ft. 3 in. gauge and adhered to this gauge for some years ; 

 later on, however, in order to reduce the first cost of construction, a 

 considerable length of railway mileage was constiaicted on thei 3 ft. 6 in. 

 gauge. Queensland and Western Australia, when they began railway 

 construction, selected the 3 ft. 6 in. gauge because of the possibilities 

 the narrower gauge offered in reduction of capital outlay. Briefly, 

 therefore, four of the five mainland States have uniform gauges in 

 their respective areas, and there are three of these gauges — 5 ft. 3 in., 



4 ft. 8J in., and 3 ft. 6 in. — while the fifth State has two gauges, 



5 ft. 3 in. and 3 ft. 6 in. The Commonwealth, when it was decided 

 to build the East-West transcontinental line, chose the 4 ft. Si in. 

 gauge. 



As soon as the four capitals — Adelaide, Melbourne^, Sydney, and 

 Brisbane — were connected by railways the delays and additional work- 

 ing expenses inevitable with any change of gauge' began to be realised, 

 and as early as 1888 Mr. Eddy, Chief Commissioner for the New 

 South Wales Eailways, drew attention to the matter and urged that 

 steps should be taken to secure unification of gauges. In 1897 a 

 Premiers' conference, held in Adelaide, instructed the various State 

 railway commissioners to report on the whole question of the unifica- 

 tion of gauges. A conference was therefore held in Melbourne in 

 August 1897, and this conference unanimously agreed to recommend 

 that 4 ft. 8 J in. be adopted as the standard Australian gauge; the 

 decision was based on the fact that it would be cheaper to convert the 

 5 ft. 3 in. to 4 ft. 8J in., and that 3 ft. 6 in. was too narrow a gauge 

 for main-line traffic. It was estimated that the cost of unification 

 would be about 23,600,0001 None of the States took any steps to 

 carry out the recommendations of the conference. 



In 1903 it became necessary to decide upon the gauge which should 

 be adopted for the East-West transcontinental line to connect Western 

 Australia with the eastern provinces, the length of the line being about 



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