Media & Education Information
MAKE TRACKS TO PORT ADELAIDE THIS WEEKEND!
19 October 2001 - South Australians will have an excellent opportunity this weekend to re-acquaint themselves with the highly acclaimed Port Dock Station Railway Museum, when its new pavilion celebrating the achievements of the Commonwealth Railways is officially opened.
The Commonwealth Railways Museum, which was supported by the Commonwealth through the Federation Fund, and through many hours of volunteer effort, will be officially opened at Port Adelaide this Sunday, 21 October and provide a fitting finale to Federation Week.
The Minister for Arts and the Centenary of Federation, the Hon Peter McGauran MP, will perform the opening ceremony with the event commencing at 8.30 a.m.
Also in attendance will be South Australian Governor, Sir Eric Neal, Former Deputy Prime Minister and well-know rail enthusiast Tim Fischer as Master of Ceremonies, and SA Minister for the Arts, The Hon Diana Laidlaw MLC. The new Museum, which forms part of the highly successful Port Dock Station Railway Museum complex, will be a permanent memorial to the pioneer railway men and women who helped develop the nation through their endeavors.
The Commonwealth Railways Museum will house the historic locomotives and carriages that once plied the rails across the Nullarbor and the Central Australian desert forming such legendary trains as the Ghan, the Trans Australian and the Tea and Sugar.
The exhibits have lovingly been restored by Museum volunteers and Work for the Dole participants and include a wooden bodied dining car from the original 1917 Trans Australian Express, one of the first steam locomotives to cross the expanse of the Nullarbor and the butchers van from the Tea and Sugar train.
State of the art sound stations have been placed at strategic locations around the exhibits to recreate the atmosphere of a bygone era of pioneer rail travel.
The Commonwealth Railway Museum is located within the Port Dock Station Railway Museum complex at Lipson Street, Port Adelaide and will be open to the public from 10 a.m. on Sunday.
