The agricultural railways in Western Australia were a system of railway lines that were built after the Western Australian 1905 Royal Commission on Immigration, which stated the need for a policy that "all considerable areas of agricultural land must have a 15 mile rail service.
"[1] The lines were designed and constructed by the Public Works Department, for the Western Australian Government Railways.
[2] The railways were identified in the early 1900s as specifically light with 40 lb rails,[3] and required for the agricultural region.
[4] The Railway Advisory Board of Western Australia was the administrative body that considered the viability of the proposed lines.
[5][6][7] The Western Australian 1947 Royal Commission into the Management Workings and Control of the Western Australian Government Railways[8][9][10][11] also placed these railway lines and their construction into context: In order to carry out the wishes of the Government to construct railway in agricultural areas as cheaply as possible, lines were built with 45 lb rail sections which practically followed the surface of the ground, with (a) earth ballasting (b) half round timber sleepers (c) providing the bare minimum station facilities.