Travel Australia

Railway Stations: Bordertown, South Australia

A service town for an agricultural area that produces wool, wheat, vineyards, cattle and a variety of seeds and cereals, Bordertown is fondly remembered as the birthplace of Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke. The town boasts the only known colony of white kangaroos in Australia.

The railway arrived in Bordertown on 22 September 1881 when the Kingston SE to Narracoorte line was extended north. It became a junction station in 1886 with the arrival of the Adelaide-Wolseley line with the station built in 1914. The only passenger rail service which stops at the station is the twice weekly Overland service operating between Adelaide and Melbourne. The railway station was listed on the South Australian Heritage Register on 22 September 1994.

Bordertown became the northern terminal and locomotive servicing centre for the Kingston - Naracoorte - Wolseley - Bordertown narrow gauge line in 1883. But it was only four years later in 1887 that the 'Intercolonial' broad gauge line reached Bordertown and pressed on to Serviceton where it interconnected with the Victorian Railways to provide Australia's first single gauge connection between two capital cities.


Wolseley railway station

In this situation Bordertown's dual gauge status was more coincidental than any meaningful point of transfer between the two different gauge lines. Indeed, it was not long before Wolseley 13 km to the east, became the primary transfer point for freight and passengers to change from broad gauge mainline trains to the narrow gauge of the South East system. Surprisingly perhaps, Bordertown continued to host the narrow gauge locomotive servicing tasks with the narrow gauge element of the dual gauge line to Wolseley providing little more than a locomotive transfer link. This arrangement continued until 1924 when the narrow gauge was closed and the servicing tasks moved to Wolseley.


Above: R 748 at Serviceton having run No 81 goods which was a 7.30 am Dimboola to Serviceton roadside goods March 8 1967 (photo courtesy John Ward)

Why Bordertown is not the border town

Contrary to what its name suggests, Bordertown is not on the South Australian/Victorian border but 18 km away on the South Australian side. The small town of Serviceton is in fact located near the Victoria-South Australia border. Due to an error in calculating the SA/Vic border, this town has now been deemed to be in both Victoria and South Australia, even though it has never moved! Drive 10 minutes up the road and you'll come to Bordertown, which, contrary to what its name suggests, is not on the border of South Australian and Victoria, but 18 km away on the South Australian side.

That is because, when the town was established, there was a dispute between the colonies of South Australia and Victoria as to where the border between them was. South Australia built the town where they believed the border should be, but when a High Court decision settled the dispute in Victoria's favour, the town was left high and dry in South Australia.

The border between Victoria and South Australia was intended to be on the 141° east meridian east but, owing to an error first made by NSW surveyor Charles James Tyers and then by surveyors sent in to correct Tyers' mistake, border markers were placed 3.6 km west of the meridian. When Victoria was proclaimed a separate province from New South Wales in 1851, the western border of the latter was defined as the South Australian border. Specific reference to the 141° east meridian was deliberately omitted, as South Australia and Victoria were in dispute as to where that border was.



When South Australia and Victoria built their respective railway lines up to the border, there was supposed to be only one station and a town to support it at the border, but as that was in dispute, South Australia built the town at Bordertown and Victoria built theirs at Serviceton. The latter was built as near as possible to the centre of the disputed territory - a strip of land 4.5 km in width which stretched along the total length of the SA/Vic border - and was accepted as the border station by both states, at least until the matter was resolved. The station was paid for equally by both governments to provide a place for the exchange of locomotives and crews. When the station was built, there were two separate platforms and two engine sheds, one for each state's trains.


Above: Serviceton station with the South Australian infrastructure on the right and Victoria's on the left circa 1905. Photo: Mort Clark collection.
Below: The station today. Believing it would win the border dispute with Victoria, the South Australian government only built temporary facilities at Serviceton, expecting the border - and the railway station on it - to be moved to its "correct position" after the dispute was settled.



In pre-Federation times, border towns were important customs stations where excise had to be paid on goods passing between the colonies. Everything was unloaded and put onto another train, hence the sizeable railway station complex at Serviceton. Customs excise laws proved difficult to enforce because the town was in the disputed territory. Upon reaching Serviceton station, those bringing goods from South Australia told the Victorian customs officers they were not crossing the border, but were in fact already in Victoria, and therefore no duty was payable. Those bringing goods from Victoria into South Australia told the South Australian customs officers they were still in Victoria and had not crossed the border into South Australia, therefore no duty was payable. The Victorian customs officers were all too quick to confirm this. Smuggling was therefore a very profitable business.

A High Court judgement in 1911 eventually ruled in Victoria's favour, establishing that the border was where it had originally been surveyed. Serviceton was now legally fully in Victoria, and became the offical border station. Nevertheless, the South Australian Railways and its successors continued to claim ownership of the railway line to Serviceton, as according to them, the town is in South Australia, even though the High Court's ruling placed it in Victoria. And as if to have the last word on the matter, South Australia decided to not change the name of Bordertown, even though the High Court ruling meant determined once and for all that it was not a border town.

Brief history of Bordertown

European graziers began settling in the area in the 1840s. In 1852, Captain Alexander Tolmer surveyed an overland route through the 90 Mile Desert along which gold escorts from the western Victorian goldfields to Port Adelaide could travel. He nominated the states' border as a suitable place for a depot on the route and suggested the stopping place be named after him.

Tolmer was apparently quite upset when they chose the un-original name of Bordertown instead. One of town's functions was to be a checkpoint between Victoria and South Australia where the Victorian Government could stop the flow of Chinese immigants to its goldfields who were sneaking in through the back door (South Australia). That never happened as the town was built where South Australia believed the border to be, which was 18 km away from where Victoria believed the border to be (see above). The Chinese passed through the town without any trouble as Victorian government officials had no jurisdiction in the town and were powerless to stop them.

In July 1852, 120 allotments were sold (the cost was 50 shillings for a quarter acre block). It continued as a service centre after the goldrush, particularly after the arrival of the railway in 1886.