The Never-Never Line: The Story of the North Australia Railway by J Y Harvey

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Dust jacket has light creasing at edges and spine. Dust jacket is now enclosed in a glossy protective cover. Interior and binding are also very good.

The Never-Never Line is the North Australia Railway, an isolated 3ft 6 in gauge line that ran southward from Darwin to Birdum in the Top End of the Northern Territory.

It began its operations on 30 September 1889 as the 146-mile-long Palmerston and Pine Creek Railway, a component of the South Australia Railways system. It became Commonwealth property in 1911 and, under its new owners, was extended in 1917 to the Katherine River, 55 miles from Darwin, and in 1929 to Birdum, 316 miles from Darwin. The railway ceased operations in 1975, an indirect casualty of Cyclone Tracy.

The Never-Never Line not only tells the story of the North Australia Railway but also chronicles the various attempts, spanning more than a century, to complete the great north-south transcontinental link. (book flap)