Localities on the Trans-Australian Railway

When the Trans-Australian Railway was completed in 1917 from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta, about 50 settlements of various sizes were established along the line, from which maintenance workers kept the track in operational condition. They and their families led an isolated life, although they were supplied with provisions by a weekly special train, which also provided banking and postal facilities.[1] Passenger trains were hauled by steam locomotives, which needed to take on water at various stopping places. With a change to diesel traction in the early 1950s, the need for such stops decreased greatly. Maintenance work is now undertaken by contractors whose families do not live on the line.

A wooden station building at Woocalla. Its design was common to almost 50 buildings placed at localities along the Trans-Australian Railway.

The only passenger train to traverse the entire railway – the Indian Pacific – stops at Cook,[2] Rawlinna (seasonally),[3] and on the Nullarbor Plain[4] as part of the "outback experience", around which the train is marketed.[note 1]

Station buildings and most infrastructure has been dismantled at the 50 localities. Most of the sites are inaccessible by public roads; a few have short airstrips nearby.

A map given to passengers on the Trans-Australian Railway, circa 1960, showed all localities on the line at that time and the origins of their names