Time Travellers in Essendon, Flemington and the Keilor Plains

The Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company

By Lenore Frost

A combination of businessmen, mainly from Essendon and Flemington, put together a daring but ultimately doomed plan to build a private railway line from North Melbourne to Essendon.  The attraction of the plan was that it would provide easy access from  Melbourne to Essendon, where many of the businessmen had built substantial and comfortable homes;  it would pass close to the proposed new government cattle saleyards at Newmarket; it had the potential for a spur-line to the Flemington Racecourse; and it would improve land values along the line. 

Future plans included extending the line north to the Murray River, and building their own station in Melbourne, at the Haymarket.

The first sod was turned by the Governor of Victoria, Sir Henry Barkly, on Hugh Glass's property at the back of the Newmarket Hotel, on 29 August 1859.   Glass was the principal shareholder of the company.  The line was built by gangs of navvies using picks, shovels, wheelbarrows and drays.  Engineer Francis Bell is credited with constructing the bridges on the line, with George Holmes and Company (the partner being Edward Richardson), constructing the line. 

The stations built were the same as those that operate on the line today - Kensington, Newmarket, Ascot Vale and Essendon.  The bluestone platforms of those original stations can still be seen today, but the old station buildings, described by Alfred Deakin in 1881 as 'superannuated iron cow sheds', were swept away in subsequent upgrades.  Francis Bell's bridges are also still in use today, though in some cases widened to accommodate an extra line.

Delays were experienced in obtaining rails and chairs for the line, and the company also did not have rolling stock of its own, but the line opened with some fanfare on 22 October 1860.  The company was forced to lease engines and rolling stock from the government, and also pay for the use of the government station at North Melbourne.  The company did press on with its plans to build a spur-line to the racecourse, and this opened on 16 February 1861.

The Railway Company did not achieve a significant role in transporting livestock to the market, but it did earn its place in history by being the first to deliver sheep to Newmarket in 1861.  The sheep had been overlanded from the western district to Geelong, then entrained to the yards.

The rail service consisted of a single engine with one first class and one second class carriage trundling back and forth on a single line to Melbourne every hour.  The number of passengers from Essendon to Melbourne was disappointing, especially during the day.  The service was disrupted, often for days, if the engine broke down, or if the government required it for their own use.  Commuters were also left standing on race-days when the train was removed to run to the racecourse. 

Within a short time the company was experiencing severe financial difficulties, and began approaches to the Victorian government to purchase the line.  The government, however, was in no hurry to take on the liability, and its Engineer-in-Chief Thomas Higginbotham reported in January 1863 that the line was in a very bad state of repair, had been built with shoddy materials, and would require significant funds to put it in working order.   The company was forced to close the line on 1 July 1864 with no offer from the government to purchase the line.

Thus commenced a very worrying period for the directors and shareholders, with many meetings, deputations and petitions, but it wasn't until August 1867 that the Victorian Government agreed to purchase the line.  While work commenced fairly soon on rehabilitating the line, the purchase money was not paid until November 1868.  The shareholders and directors lost their entire investment, and worse, had borrowed money to build and operate the line.

Disappointingly for the district, while the government quickly re-opened the only profitable section of the line - the spur-line to the racecourse in November 1867 - the rest of the line remained closed until 1871.  The capital losses on their investment caused to large numbers of leading businessmen of the area, and the reduced land values owing to the closure of the line, resulted in a local economic recession, described later as 'dark days for Essendon'. 

The Victorian government quickly extended the line northwards, reaching Wodonga in November 1873.    Duplication of the line occurred in 1884, and 'down' side platforms were rebuilt in 1908.  The line was electrified in 1918, the first in Australia.

Ascot Vale Station showing the duplicated line done in 1894 and the rebuilt down side buildings from 1908, and before the electrification of 1918.  This postcard would date to about 1908.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria collection. 

                                                                                                                                                 ©  Lenore Frost

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