The Railway Conquest of the World

II.

WHEREAS the Southern Australian and Queensland railways are called upon to meet the demands of agriculture, the roads of Western Australia, on the other hand, have been laid out to satisfy the extensive mining movements along the western shore of the island continent. The engineers, however, have not been called upon to face particularly stern grapples with Nature, owing to the country traversed being, for the most part, of a give-and-take character, and to there being an entire absence of high mountains and wide, rushing rivers. There is only one chain of hills of any magnitude that has to be crossed by the lines. This is the Darling range, which runs parallel with the coast from near Geraldton to the southern extremity of the country.

In order to gain the gold-fields around Coolgardie, as well as the eastern and southern stretches of the State, the difficulties confronting the engineer in connection with this low ridge were not so great as those prevailing in New South Wales. For instance, only one tunnel, 1,096 feet in length, has had to be bored. Indeed, the engineer seized the opportunity to build the line cheaply to such an extent that the lowest watermark in this respect, bearing in mind the configuration of the country, may be said to have been attained. True, the grades and curvature are heavy, the former running up to as high as 1 in 50 (2 percent), while the curves are of 266 feet radius. Some of the most difficult spurs in this range are traversed by the line which, taps the extensive coal-fields in the Collie district -- the bulk of the coal used in the State is obtained here -- where sharp