Sometimes states need to co-operate

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I wrote about the tea and sugar train which carried supplies to those working on the Trans-Australian Railway. Railways have played a very important role in Australia but there have been a number of problems over the decades, mainly because each state installed different gauge size lines. ‘Gauge’ is the distance between the two lines. Instead of adopting a ‘standard’ gauge in all states, for reasons too complex to go into here, Sydney, New South Wales, ended up with a ‘standard’ gauge of 1.435 metres while Victoria and South Australia had a ‘broad’ gauge of 1.6 metres. Parts of South Australia had an even narrower gauge in some areas. Of course, this meant that different engines and carriages were needed according to the gauge, and passengers travelling interstate had to change trains at the borders. It was decades before all lines became the same and the expense over the years was horrendous. All because ministers and bureaucrats couldn’t agree back in the late 1800s.