The following paper was written by Douglas C Daws J.P. and presented to the Eastern Goldfields Historical Soc on the 8th Nov 1997 for the centenary of the arrival of the railway to Boulder. It is reproduced here with his kind permission.
PRECIS: Railways were introduced to Western Australia in the early 1880’s and developed extensively following the discovery of gold in the southern part of the State in the early 1890s. Railways were seen as the best way to provide communications and freight transfer to the rapidly expanding goldfields in an era when roads were primitive and heavy motor transport was yet to be invented. These early gold mining towns became very vocal in their claims for a railway service to their district and there was fierce competition and lobbying to the government of the day for the extension of the rail network to their town or district.
This paper is a short essay on the extension of the railway to the Boulder townsite in 1897. It is not a story about the famous Loopline which came about some 4 years later.
Leaving aside the construction of the Geraldton to Northampton railway in 1879, the first railway in the ‘Colony’ was not opened until 1st March 1881. This was the line from Fremantle to Guildford via Perth. Extensions were gradually made into the adjacent agricultural districts with the line opening to Beverley in 1886, Northam in 1888 and to Geraldton in 1887.
Boulder Railway Station some 9 years later – Kalgoorlie Western Argus 13 March 1906.
