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Pt Augusta railway bridge
Title : Pt Augusta railway bridge Pt Augusta railway bridge
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Creator : Wenmouth, Bernice M.; photographer
Source : The Wenmouth Collection : Port Augusta
Date of creation : ca. 1957
Format : Photograph
Contributor : State Library of South Australia
Catalogue record
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Description :

A train on the jetty at Port Augusta


As the nearest town and port to the Outback of South Australia, Port Augusta played an integral role in the development of the north. Besides being an outlet for the wool clip and later the wheat harvest from the adjacent regions, it was also the port to which the supplies for the building of the Overland Telegraph Line and later the northern railway were delivered. Once built the railways became the main reason for the port's continued existence as the coal needed by the trains was imported through Port Augusta.

Between 1913 and 1917, a 2,000 km long east-west transcontinental railway (the Trans-Australian Railway) was built from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. This linked Western Australian with the eastern states.

Port Augusta was officially closed as a port in 1974.

Subjects
Coverage year : 1957
Place : Pt Augusta
Further reading :

Burke, David, Road through the wilderness: the story of the transcontinental railway, the first great work of Australia's federation Kensington, N.S.W.: New South Wales University Press, c1991

Anderson, R. J. Solid town: the history of Port Augusta [Port Augusta, S. Aust.]: R.J. Anderson, 1988

Blainey, Geoffrey, The tyranny of distance: how distance shaped Australia's history Melbourne; London [etc.]: Macmillan, 1974, 1975

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