Media & Education Information
FEDERAL MINISTER TO OPEN CENTENARY of FEDERATION PROJECT
15 October 2001 - The Minister for Arts and the Centenary of Federation, the Hon Peter McGauran MP, will officially open the new Commonwealth Railways Museum at Port Adelaide on Sunday, 21 October at 8.30 a.m.
The Commonwealth Railways Museum, which was supported by the Commonwealth through the Federation Fund, has been established within the existing Port Dock Station Railway Museum complex at Port Adelaide. It will focus on the history of the Commonwealth Railways and the role that they played in developing the Nation.
At the same ceremony the highly successful Port Dock Station Railway Museum will also be officially renamed "The National Railway Museum". This is as a result of the establishment of the Commonwealth Railways Museum within the Port Dock complex and in recognition of Port Dock Station's prominence as the leading railway museum in Australia and one of the top-ten worldwide.
A spokesperson for the Port Dock Museum, Mark Carter said, "When it commenced in 1912, the building of the Trans-Australian Railway, between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie, was the first major expenditure of the fledgling Commonwealth and was also part of an agreement to ensure Western Australia's participation in Federation."
"It is fitting that the Commonwealth Railways Museum is being opened here in South Australia in this Centenary of Federation year and that it has been established with the aid of Federation Funding.""
The Commonwealth Railways played a major role in developing transport links in this State and was a major employer in regional centres such as Port Augusta and Port Pirie. For over 60 years the Commonwealth operated rail services across the Nullarbor to Kalgoorlie, through Central Australia to Alice Springs and in the Northern Territory.
The new museum will feature the magnificent locomotives and carriages that operated such famous and historic trains as the Trans Australian, the Ghan and the Tea and Sugar, often through inhospitable climate and terrain.
It will also pay tribute to our railway heroes of the past; those people that operated the trains and those that endured harsh and isolated conditions to ensure that the trains kept running.
After the official ceremony, the Museum will open to the general public at 10.00 a.m. With the added attraction of the new Commonwealth Railways Museum, the day will provide an excellent opportunity for South Australians to re-acquaint themselves with what is undoubtedly Australia's finest railway museum.
Mark Carter concluded by saying, "As well as the significant contribution from the Federation Fund, countless hours of volunteer input has gone into the establishment of the new Commonwealth Railways Museum. In the International Year of the Volunteer, Port Dock and this new addition are a shining example of what can be achieved through volunteer input."
