"Gawler 150 - Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Opening of the Adelaide to Gawler Railway"
By Steve McNicol
Paperback cover 28 pages colour & black/white photos
INTRODUCTION
By 1846, only a decade after the proclamation of the Province of South Australia, moves were underway to open up this vast new land with the latest form of modern transport - railways. As more and more land was settled by farmers and mining of the inland ore deposits increased the need for a quicker and safer form of transport was of the upmost importance for the growth and development of this new colony. In the British Isles the railway boom was in full swing and by the end of 1846 there had already been 18 Acts of Parliament passed just to regulate this new form of transport. This had increased to 58 by 1854.
In April 1846 the Adelaide Railway Company was registered in England and a Colonial Committee appointed in South Australia. During the next few years a number of railway proposals were considered and in 1849 a second railway company had been formed; the South Australian Colonial Railway Company. The City and Port Adelaide Railway Bill was introduced into Parliament, the two companies amalgamated and then merged with the Adelaide City and Port Railway Company. But, by late 1851 and after much lobbying by the railway company concerning the 'unfair' conditions placed upon its construction, the project was taken over by the Government.