Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company

The proposal met considerable opposition, despite the inadequacy and high costs of using horse drays and bullock wagons to carry merchandise from the port to the city.

However, the combination of chaotic transport conditions and the extravagant financial prosperity that followed the gold rush led the community to realise the urgent need for railway communication on various routes, of which this one was prominent.

[1]: 62 The first engineer for the line was William Snell Chauncy, but he was forced to resign in 1845 due to problems with his work, such as the failure of piles on the railway pier.

According to the Argus newspaper's report of the next day: "Long before the hour appointed ... a great crowd assembled round the station at the Melbourne terminus, lining the whole of Flinders Street".

Despite high construction costs, the railway was an immediate success, carrying 270,000 passengers and 28,135 tons of goods in its first full year of operations.

During the company's 13 years' existence, the average annual dividend of 71⁄2 per cent on working operations had resulted, equal to a return of nearly £49 on each £50 share.

Routes of the company's inaugural lines
The locomotive that hauled the inaugural train on 12 September 1854 and continued in service for the following three months. It was hurriedly built by Robertson, Martin & Smith in time for the inauguration of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay railway when production of Robert Stephenson and Company 's locomotives in the UK was delayed.
The company's busy pier at Hobson's Bay contributed to profitability until the company was sold in 1878 to the Victorian Government .
A train arriving at the company's City Terminus at Flinders Street