There have been a number of train accidents on the railway network of Victoria, Australia. Some of these are listed below.
Fatal accidents
North Geelong, 1857 On 25 June 1857, the inaugural train of the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company left Geelong at 10 a.m., bound for the company's temporary Melbourne terminus at Greenwich (now Newport). When the train passed under the road overpass adjacent to the Ocean Child Hotel in North Geelong, Henry Walter, the locomotive superintendent of the company, was knocked off the locomotive and fatally injured.
Jolimont, 1881 On 30 August 1881, the first accident in Victoria involving passenger deaths and multiple injuries occurred. Four passengers were killed, and 39 were injured, when a tyre broke on one of the wheels of the 8:54am express from Brighton to Flinders Street Station, causing the derailment of five carriages near Jolimont. The first car to leave the rails, the fourth in a train of nine, was dragged along the metals for some distance. When the forward coupling eventually broke, the carriage fell over an embankment about three feet high, into swampy ground. With the rear coupling of the toppled carriage still attached to those behind, the remainder of the train was suddenly checked, and the momentum of the fifth and sixth carriages caused them to shoot upwards, and then fall in the same direction. The carriage that had fallen was completely crushed beneath the one to which it had been coupled. The remainder of the carriages were brought to a standstill, and although the seventh and eighth had left the rails, they did not fall. There were about 120 passengers in the three carriages that toppled over the embankment.
Picnic, 1882 On the evening of 2 December 1882, one passenger was killed and 178 were injured when a head-on collision occurred between a special train, which had been engaged to convey intending purchasers of land from the sale of the Box Hill estate, and the ordinary train from Melbourne to Camberwell. The disaster happened about from a small wayside station called Picnic, between East Richmond and Hawthorn. The drivers knew nothing of the impending catastrophe until they got within of each other, and, because both trains were travelling at a fair speed, the distance was too short to enable them to avoid a collision. The drivers stuck to their locomotives until they were within just a few feet of each other, when they jumped off. The buffers of the engines snapped, and the front of the engine attached to the train from Melbourne was smashed in right up to the funnel. Two carriages in each train were telescoped.
Little River, 1884 On Wednesday, 2 April 1884, the 8.20 p.m. goods train from Melbourne to Geelong received the staff from the porter at Werribee station and proceeded to Little River, where the train was to cross with the 7.10 p.m. passenger train from Geelong to Melbourne. In the unauthorised absence of the Werribee stationmaster at choir practice, his 17-year-old daughter inexplicably telegraphed to Little River that the line was clear. Consequently, Little River station released the passenger train to travel to Werribee. In darkness and heavy rain, the two trains collided head on near Little River. The two drivers and one passenger were killed. One of the drivers killed was Thomas Kitchen, who had been driving one of the trains involved in the accident at Picnic 18 months before.
Sunbury, 1884 Also on 2 April 1884, the boiler of a locomotive hauling a goods train on the Bendigo line exploded near the Jacksons Creek viaduct, just north of Sunbury station. The fireman was killed and the driver died a few days later.
Windsor, 1887 On 11 May 1887 the 5.30 p.m. train from Flinders Street station to Balaclava came to a standstill just before Windsor station because the outer home signal was at danger. When the signal changed to proceed, the train would not move because the air brake hose pipe between the locomotive and the first carriage had broken, meaning that the brakes could not be released.
The guard of the train did not go back to warn approaching trains, as required by the rules. Instead he walked forward to examine the brake problem. An express train to Brighton, which had left Flinders Street ten minutes after the disabled train, crashed into it from the rear. The driver of the express could not see the stationary train until far too late, owing to the curve in the track just beyond the High Street bridge over the line.
The locomotive of the express demolished the guard's van of the Balaclava train, as well as three of its carriages. Six people were killed, including the driver and fireman of the express. Ironically, the Chairman of the Victorian Railways Commissioners, Richard Speight, and his fellow commissioner William Green, were travelling in the express. They were uninjured.
Hawksburn, 1896 On Friday 30 May 1896, Charles Heatley, the stationmaster of Hawksburn station, was struck and killed by a goods train while he was crossing the tracks at the station. As a passenger train was pulling up there, Heatley jumped down from the opposite platform and stood between the tracks, waiting for an opportunity to cross to the platform at which the train has arrived. He was not aware of a goods train approaching from the other direction and was hit by the locomotive, throwing him against the passenger train. Heatly died of his injuries in hospital without regaining consciousness.
Moranding (Kurkuruc Creek), 1907 On 4 October 1907, the driver and fireman of a goods train, running from Kilmore to Tooborac, died from shocking injuries sustained after their locomotive, and most of the train, derailed and toppled off the bridge over Kurkuruc Creek, near Moranding, on the Heathcote Junction to Bendigo line. The verdict of the coroner was that the accident had been caused by a broken fishplate on rails on the bridge. However, evidence presented at a subsequent government inquiry indicated that the train had derailed before it reached the bridge, and the broken fishplate was one of the effects of the accident, not its cause. The inquiry decided that the derailment must have been the result of some obstruction on one of the rails, which was not able to be found, due to the accident and the work done in clearing up the wreckage.
Ravenswood, 1907 On the night of 21 October 1907, three loaded sheep trucks and a guard's van, which had broken away from a goods train to Melbourne while ascending Porcupine Hill, careered back down the line and smashed into a following train waiting at Ravenswood station. A drover accompanying the livestock, who was apparently asleep in the runaway guard's van, was fatally injured.
Sunshine, 1908
On 20 April 1908, a train packed with holidaymakers returning to Melbourne from Ballarat was struck by another train coming from Bendigo. Forty-four people were killed and 413 injured.
Beaufort, 1910 On 5 February 1910, a double headed goods train from Stawell, composed of 35 trucks carrying wheat, got out of control as it descended a relatively gentle grade into Beaufort station. A light engine (i.e. one without a train) was standing in Beaufort station as the runaway train approached, and the signalman turned the oncoming train into a dead-end siding.
When the train struck the buffers at the end of the siding, the leading locomotive derailed, with its tender in an almost perpendicular position. The second locomotive and its tender were jammed together in the form of a "V". The driver of the leading locomotive and the fireman of the second one were killed outright, and the fireman of the first engine was trapped in the wreckage and could not be extricated before he died. The driver of the second engine was able to jump clear, but suffered scalding to the face and internal injuries. The accident was caused by brake failure.
Richmond, 1910 On 18 July 1910, nine people were killed and over 400 were injured when, in heavy fog, a train from Elsternwick crashed into the rear of a train from Brighton at Richmond station. It is believed to be the first Australian rail accident recorded on film.
Kilmore Junction, 1910 On 19 November 1910, the driver of a goods train was killed after his train got out of control on the Heathcote branch line, as it descended the steep grade leading to the junction of the branch with the main North East railway line at Kilmore Junction (later known as Heathcote Junction). The air brakes on the train had become defective, so the driver and guard decided to use the hand brakes on the goods wagons to control the train on its descent. These proved ineffective and the train ran away down the grade. It was diverted on to a runaway siding which had recently been provided at the junction to prevent out-of-control trains from running on to the main line. When the locomotive hit the clay bank at the end of the runaway track it overturned, and the driver was fatally injured.
West Melbourne, 1912 On the afternoon of 4 September 1912, two people were killed and over 60 people injured when a special train, bringing passengers back to Melbourne from the Royal Melbourne Show, collided with a suburban train travelling to Coburg. The accident occurred on the Dudley Street bridge, between Spencer Street and North Melbourne stations. The Show special was supposed to be held at a signal so that the Coburg train could cross in front of it while switching tracks. However, the special ran through the signal and the locomotives of the two trains collided. Three carriages of the Coburg train were telescoped and two compartments of the first carriage of the show train were badly damaged.
Highett, 1925 On 23 March 1925, eight people in an automobile were killed at the Wickham Road crossing at Highett, when the driver passed through an open gate and into the path of a parcel goods train.
Caulfield, 1926 On 26 May 1926, three people were killed and 30 injured when an Oakleigh-bound train ran into the rear of a Carrum-bound train standing at platform 4. It was alleged that the driver of the Oakleigh train had run through a stop signal, but he was acquitted of manslaughter at a subsequent trial.
Newport, 1929 A Leyland railmotor, running from Geelong to Melbourne, with 17 passengers aboard, derailed at the Wheate's Lead (now Kororoit Creek Road) level crossing, colliding with a lineside telegraph pole. One passenger later died in hospital, and three were injured. The cause of the accident was the failure of a roller bearing on one of the non-driving axles.
Keon Park, 1932 On 14 October 1932, a railway ganger travelling on a railway tricycle from Keon Park to Reservoir was run down by an electric train, and received fatal injuries.
Seymour, 1935 In the early hours of 1 September 1935, an empty passenger train, returning from Albury to Melbourne, ran into the rear of another empty passenger train, which had been halted at a signal just north of Seymour station. The guard of the stationary train, Thomas Middlin, jumped clear just before the crash, but died later that day from injuries he received. The signalman at the previous station, Mangalore, had fallen asleep after the passage of the first train, and awoke as the second train approached, allowing it to proceed despite not having received a "line clear" signal from Seymour. The driver of the second train had also been travelling too fast to stop in time after passing the distant signal at Seymour which was at danger. The signalman at Mangalore was later acquitted of a charge of manslaughter.
St. Albans, 1940 On 27 September 1940, farmer John Ferris was driving across the Kororoit Road level crossing at St. Albans when he was struck by the 3.25pm train from Bendigo to Melbourne. He was killed in the collision.
Wodonga, 1943