Narrow-gauge railways in Australia

Prior to becoming an independent unified country in 1901, each of the six British colonies in Australia was responsible for rail transport infrastructure.

Of the six colonies, only three (Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania) opted for 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge railways.

The massive narrow-gauge 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) coal trains of the Queensland Railway with 100 wagons and 2 midtrain electric locomotives show what is possible with narrow gauge with modern equipment and tracklaying techniques.

A clever salesman convinced the Queensland government that a narrow gauge would save money, and do the job for a hundred years.

Queensland Rail also operates the iconic QR Tilt Train, with a recommended maximum speed of 165 km/h.

Dual gauge is also proposed to convert the standard-gauge interstate line for use by narrow-gauge commuter trains.

The Northern Territory adopted narrow gauge when it was still part of South Australia, and a north–south transcontinental line was planned from Adelaide to Darwin in the 1870s.

An exception was at Broken Hill where the large silver-lead mine is only 30 km from the South Australian border, but separated by hundreds of kilometres of desert from the main NSW standard-gauge railway system.

However four common carrier lines were built to the 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge standard, to serve local farming and forestry communities.

These included the Yallourn 900mm Railway in the Latrobe Valley open cut coal mines, the Fyansford Cement Works Railway near Geelong, the Tyers Valley Tramway at Mount Baw Baw, and the Powelltown Tramway from Yarra Junction.