THE RIESLING TRAIL
GENERAL ADVICE TO WALKERS AND CYCLISTS ON THE RIESLING TRAIL
The trail is for walkers and cyclists. Horse riding is prohibited.
Solid footwear is recommended
Drinking water is not available at any point along the trail.
Trivia piece. There are 36 curves on the original railway alignment between Auburn and Clare.
Throughout the length of the trail are occasional dog spikes, lumps of coal, and pieces of firebox brick. Dog spikes with a "T" shaped head are from the original construction, and the round-head spikes of more recent times.
The lumps of coal tell their own interesting stories. Coal fell off locomotive tenders, and with the exception of a few "steam specials" of the 60s and 70s, we can be certain that these lumps of coal have lain in the ballast for 4 decades or more. There are shiny lumps of coal and there are dull-grey lumps of coal. The shiny coal is the best anthracite that the railways could buy. The dull lumps are the inferior fuel that were the curse of the post-war years, and probably included Leigh Creek brown coal in the early 50s.
When the railway was built, timber fence posts were used, of which very little evidence now exists. Those posts were replaced by posts of redundant steel rail, probably in the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the the rail used for fences is unmarked, however there is the occasional fence post from the era when rail was marked with the date and identification of the railway.
Kilometre markers are provided along the trail, however they are approximate in their correspondence with locations. For example the Penwortham marker is south of the point of the original Penwortham stopping place, which in turn is south of where the Penwortham station board has been erected.
The cuttings provide an opportunity to observe the geology of the valley, with the appearance of limestone between Auburn and Watervale.
For those interested in the engineering aspects of the earthworks, and not having time to examine the whole length of the trail, the section between Penwortham and the Clare Showgrounds offers the greater interest.
In 1935 the South Australian Railways prepared a diagram of the gradients and curves of the railway. Allowing for the use of the units of the time (curves measured in chains, and distance in miles) it is as relevant now as it was then. We have published it as a PDF file [650 Kb PDF file]. Also available for reproduction are the track layouts of the stations. Total length of The Riesling Trail is 27 km. Sections are: