THE RIESLING TRAIL

+ The Riesling Trail Table of Contents... Information For walkers and cyclists The origins of the Clare Valley Riesling Trail Gauges And Units Background to railway communication to the Clare Valley Early proposals to build a railway to Clare The railway guarantee Engineering aspects of the Clare-Spalding Railway The Riverton to Spalding Railway Bill The protracted construction of the railway to Spalding A losing line from the day it opened Features of the Riverton to Spalding Railway The Clare Valley water supply The Barwell Bulls, and rail passenger services to Clare and Spalding Goods services (including image of Timetable) The Spalding to Jamestown Railway Proposal Safeworking Locomotives on the railway to Clare and Spalding The declining years of the Clare Railway

The Origins of the Clare Valley Riesling Trail

For a few years after the bushfire, there were moves to restore the railway as a tourist venture. At the time South Australia already had three tourist railways that were heavily dependent on community funds and labour. There were two imaginative schemes that could have happened only with major public or corporate sponsorship, but in the 80s imaginative projects seemed to attract the money. The first was a plan to relocate the Peterborough collection to Clare and convert the track to narrow-gauge. Then as now, the Peterborough operation was struggling in consequence of being off the usual tourist routes. There was also, at the time, some dissent within the ranks of the Peterborough organisation, and the belief is that this scheme arose from an approach to Clare from one of the Peterborough factions.

Scheme two would have kept the railway to its original gauge, and embarked on the construction of a full-size working replica of South Australia's original 1856 Stephenson locomotive with matching carriages. Neither proposal could stimulate the nucleus of passion and charisma so necessary to rally volunteer or financial support, and in 1989 the demolition contractor moved in.

After the rails had been lifted, the railway formation between Auburn and Clare was developed as a walking and riding trail, that has now been touted as a tourist attraction for the Clare Valley. Its name, "The Riesling Trail" derives from the landscape of vineyards through which it passes, and the affinity to the region of the riesling grape that produces internationally acclaimed wines of that variety. The interesting twist to the saga is that the development of The Riesling Trail happened as a result of a passionate campaign by local winemaker Tony Brady, and has been at some cost from the community chest, and backed up by a local volunteer support organisation.

The Clare Valley has no shortage of sentimentalists who are easily coaxed into a tale of lament over the demise of their railway, and eager to relate a tale of their trip to the local station to collect some urgently needed commodity, or of the wartime railcar that would stop at any place along the track to take the shoppers to Clare.

When we look at the Riverton - Spalding Railway objectively, the conclusion is that it could not be economically or socially justified in the first place, and that it was built on the cheap with steep grades and tight curves that doomed it to an inefficiency of operation throughout its existence. Construction of this railway was for political expediency, and that is where the story becomes fascinating. First, however, we need to understand the beginnings of the railway network in the northern agricultural region of South Australia.