.jpg)
HISTORY
Each year Trek the Trail takes in different sections of the former
Eastern Railway that ran to 
Previous Routes of Trek the Trail
2004: Wooroloo to
Chidlow
2005: Mt Helena to
Parkerville
2006: Mundaring to
Rail Tale
Mundaring Shire’s unique history is reflected in its 70 km
Railway Reserves Heritage Trail (RRHT). Until the 1950s you could
travel between Hills villages by train. Now you can walk or cycle
along the picturesque winding formation and discover their history.
The old Eastern Railway route was determined by settlements that grew up along the road to WA’s earliest inland town, York. Smallholdings, remnant orchards, evidence of past woodcutting and the sites of former sawmills - reminders of how the first settlers made a living from the land and forest can be seen on sections of the RRHT.
Time lines
Work on extending the railway line from Guildford
via Smith’s Mill (now Glen Forrest) to the pit
sawyers’ settlement of Sawyers Valley and further east
began early in 1882. After two years
of
digging, blasting and carting, the railway line finally made it to
Chidlow’s Well, a watering-stop on the York Road.
An Inquirer newspaper
correspondent reporting on the newly-opened line shortly after its
official opening on March 11th 1894,
remarked on the “straight piece of line … that would do credit to
any part of the world” near White’s Mill (Mt
Helena).
To make it straight took some
effort, as the height of embankments will attest. Labour was largely
manual and earth to form embankments was brought in by horse and
cart. Cuttings on the trail, blasted through granite,
are further testament to the navvies’ hard labour. Ballast
came from a quarry at the foot of Green Mount (now Greenmount).
Work on extending the Eastern
Railway from Chidlow’s Well to York via Wooroloo, another watering
place, started even before the Guildford - Chidlow section was
completed and opened on June 29 1885.
Tunnel vision
Traffic along the line increased thanks to the Gold Rush of the 1890s - an average 20 trains daily
instead of the estimated one train in each
direction per week when the railway was started. The existing track
was too steep for heavier trains so work began in
February 1894 on an easier gradient over the scarp. The deviation,
which became the main line, went further north via Parkerville and
Stoneville and rejoined the existing line at Mount Helena.Thanks to the deviation, cyclists and
walkers enjoying the RRHT don’t have to retrace their tracks. A
circular route takes in the tunnel in John Forrest National Park,
built to eliminate steep grades on the railway line.
