Travel Australia

Railway Stations: Ararat, Victoria

Ararat railway station is located on the Serviceton and Western standard gauge lines in Victoria, at the junction for the Broad Gauge Ararat – Maryborough line. It serves the town of Ararat. The station serves as the terminus for V/Line's Ararat line services.

The railway first reached Ararat from Ballarat on 7 April 1875. The line south to Portland opened in December 1877, and the mainline was extended west, reaching the South Australian border at Serviceton in January 1887. The line to Maryborough opened in 1890. Two signal boxes ("A" and "B") opened in 1891, and in 1914, the goods sidings were extended, with the locomotive depot built soon after.


Ararat yard and station, 1895, prior to the second expansion of the yard. Photo Victorian Railways

In the late 1930s, the locomotive depot was expanded, in conjunction with the arrival of the new H class 4-8-4 steam locomotives, intended for use on The Overland passenger train. A 26 metre turntable was installed with 24 roads around it, the largest on the Victorian Railways network. Before this time, Stawell was the major servicing facility in the region.

During 1985, the passenger facilities in the main station building were refurbished. However, it was during this time that rationalisation of the facilities began; the "B" signal box was demolished in 1984, and the train control office followed in 1988. The former footbridge, which was located at the Up end of the station, was destroyed in a derailment in May 1986. The former Mobil siding and associated points and staff lock were abolished in January 1988. The locomotive depot closed in 1989, the train crew depot closed on 30 June 1994, with "A" box following in 1996. Gauge conversion also occurred at the station in the 1990s, with the main line to Adelaide converted to standard gauge, as part of the One Nation project. The lines west and south were converted, with the line to Maryborough converted to dual gauge soon after.


Ararat yard, December 1986. Photo Victorian Railways

Services on the former mainline to Ballarat were suspended in April 1995, and was left as broad gauge. V/Line passenger services westward to Dimboola had earlier been withdrawn on 21 August 1993, with the Ballarat to Ararat service withdrawn on 27 May 1994.

On 11 July 2004, the line to Ballarat was reopened, with V/Line passenger services reinstated. The contract for the works was awarded in February 2003, and required a diamond crossing and signalling to be installed, to allow the broad gauge line to reach the platform. The Maryborough line was booked out of use in January 2005. From January 2017, the Ararat line included a stop at Caroline Springs station. From December 2019, the line included a stop at the new Cobblebank station.

The Murray Basin Rail Project, which began in 2016, included reopening of the line from Ararat to Maryborough. The line was officially re-opened at Avoca in early 2018, after more than 13 years of sitting idle.


A Melbbourne - Horsham Sunday excursion train arriving at Ararat, May 1983. Photo Victorian Railways (courtesy Noel Bamford)

As part of the Regional Rail Revival project, an extra stabling siding was provided at the station, to accommodate an extra morning service. The project was completed by early 2021, with a new timetable introduced on 31 January of that year. The stabling yard is able to hold two three-carriage VLocity trains.

Ararat has two platforms. The full length standard gauge platform is on the north side, with broad gauge trains using a bay platform on the south side. There is a railway grade crossing approximately 500 metres east of the station, which allows the broad gauge line to continue east towards Beaufort and Ballarat, while the standard gauge line used by The Overland heads south towards Geelong.

About Ararat

The city of Ararat is located about 198 kilometres (120 mi) west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera. Its urban population according to 2016 census is 8,297 and services the region of 11,752 residents across the Rural City's boundaries.

The discovery of gold in 1857 during the Victorian gold rush transformed it into a boomtown. Its population consisted of mainly Chinese miners, making it the only Australian town ore city to have been founded by Chinese people. Ararat continued to prosper until the turn of the 20th century, after which it has steadily declined in population. After a decline in population over the 1980s and 90s, there has been a small but steady increase in the population, and it is the site of many existing and future, large infrastructure projects, including the Hopkins Correctional Facility development project.

Ararat is named after Mount Ararat 10 kilometres south-west of the town which was named by politician/pastoralist Horatio Wills in 1841.