Railway Workers of Eyre PeninsulaPrint Page

The plaque commemorates the railway workers of the Eyre Peninsula from 1907 to 2001.

The Eyre Peninsula Railway was built and operated by the South Australian Railways (SAR). The first 67 kilometres from Port Lincoln to Cummins opened on 18 November 1907, followed by extensions to Yeelanna on 1 April 1909, Minnipa on 5 May 1913, Nunjikompita on 14 August 1914 and Thevenard on 8 February 1915, a total of 434 kilometres. A second line opened from Cummins to Moody on 1 August 1912, being extended to Ungarra on 31 March 1913, Kimba on 11 July 1913 and Buckleboo on 5 August 1926, a distance of 213 kilometres.

Branch lines off the original line opened from Yeelanna to Mount Hope on 9 October 1914, a distance of 38 kilometres and from Wandana to Penong on 7 February 1924, a distance of 83 kilometres. A further nine kilometre branch from Kevin to Kowulka opened on 11 April 1950. This was the peak of the network's size at 777 kilometres.

The Eyre Peninsula Railway was included in the March 1978 takeover of the SAR by Australian National and the November 1997 sale of Australian National's South Australian freight business to Genesee & Wyoming which  included a 50-year lease on the rail network from the state government until 2047.

The last grain train from Kevin to Penong operated on 3 March 1997 with the line reverting to state government ownership on 30 June 2001. Due to a poor harvest resulting from drought, the last grain train north of Cummins to Kimba ran on 20 December 2018. Today only one 60 kilometre section remains open. It is operated by One Rail Australia.

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