Thursday, February 18, 2021

Big Hill Tunnel

EN-Jungwon: Added tag


[[File:Big-Hill-tunnel-Bendigo-line.jpg|thumb|The portal of the ''Big Hill'' railway tunnel, 390 metres long, originally double-tracked]]
The '''Big Hill Tunnel''', in [[North Central Victoria]], [[Australia]], was built as part of the Melbourne–Echuca railway or [[Bendigo railway line|Bendigo line]]. It was commenced by the private [[Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company]]. When the company experienced financial difficulties it was taken over by the Victorian colonial government in 1856, with the [[Victorian Railways]] Department being formed to operate the new public railway system.

The line opened in five stages from February 1859 to September 1864, and was at the time the largest engineering undertaking in the [[Colony of Victoria]].<ref name="Bendigo Line"></ref> More than 6,000 men were involved in the construction of the Bendigo line with the main contractors [[Cornish and Bruce]] undertaking the works.<ref name=Cornish>John Maxwell, [https://ift.tt/3sc1DMH 'Cornish, William Crocker (1815–1859)'], [[Australian Dictionary of Biography]], Volume 3, Melbourne University Press, 1969, p. 464. Retrieved on 11 July 2009.</ref> <ref name=Bruce>John Maxwell, [https://ift.tt/2ZrOhj3 'Bruce, John Vans Agnew (1822–1863)'], [[Australian Dictionary of Biography]], Volume 3, Melbourne University Press, 1969, pp 277–278. Retrieved on 11 July 2009.</ref>

The line served a strategic economic need of serving the important goldfields of [[Castlemaine, Victoria|Castlemaine]] and [[Bendigo]] (then called [[Sandhurst (Colony of Victoria, Australia)|Sandhurst]]), and capturing for Melbourne the trade in wool and other goods from northern Victoria and the [[Riverina]] which were formerly shipped through South Australia via the [[Murray River]].

The Big Hill Tunnel was the longest of the two tunnels built on the line. It is located under [[Big Hill, Victoria (City of Greater Bendigo)|Big Hill]] between [[Kangaroo Flat, Victoria|Kangaroo Flat]] and [[Ravenswood, Victoria|Ravenswood]], south of [[Bendigo]]. Like the other tunnel on the line, the Elpinstone Tunnel, it was double-tracked when built, but was singled as part of the [[Regional Fast Rail project]].

The Elphinstone Tunnel, long, was built in brick and [[Bluestone#In Australia|bluestone]] as a double-track horseshoe profile tunnel, and was completed in 1860.<ref name="Bendigo Line"/>

==References==


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