Peter Evans will present on the following subject:
Tramways to Timboon
The Heytesbury forest once occupied huge swathes of south-west Victoria, stretching from Warrnambool in the west to Lake Corangamite in the east, and south to the infamous shipwreck coast. Today, that forest exists as isolated remnants only, wiped out by the pressures of settlement. In the process of its destruction, resources such as timber, lime, coal and gravel were exploited to support the settlers and their surrounding communities. The key to that exploitation was a railway extended south from Camperdown to Timboon, completed in 1892. The reach of the railway was extended by a network of tramways which provided the only practical means of transport before the Country Roads Board began extending roads through the remnants of the forest. The result: where the forest once stood, are rolling green hills, and a thriving dairy industry. This presentation will outline the processes and policies that used sawmills as the tool to clear the forest, and establish dairy farms and the other extractive industries that followed the railway. The presentation recounts the history of the Timboon railway, a selection of the over 100 individual sawmills, as well as that of numerous lime works and quarry operations, many of which used tramways as an integral tool of development.
This page is prepared and maintained by the Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. and is copyright © by LRRSA.
