Last week I went on a two-night break to Tocumwal. It’s a small town 291km/182mi north of Melbourne, on the north bank of the Murray River so in New South Wales. The town was established in the early 1860s. As with the other Murray river communities, paddle steamers were initially the way in which goods were imported and exported.
The bridge
The Murray bridge opened in 1895. It has three spans, the centre originally being liftable for navigation. The last lift for navigational purposes was in 1933. The span was last raised in 1995 to mark the bridge’s centenary, following which it was welded shut. Initially built for road traffic only, the bridge was strengthened and adapted for rail traffic in 1908. It was then used for both road and rail traffic until November 1987, when a separate road bridge was opened, and continues to carry the occasional freight train.
The railway
On the Victorian side of the river a 53km/33mi rail line from Shepparton to Strathmerton in opened 1888, later being extended to a temporary terminus on the south side of the Murray opposite Tocumwal. Following agreement between the Victorian and NSW governments this line was taken across the bridge to a new VR-operated station, Tocumwal, opened in 1908. A NSWR branch to Tocumwal opened in 1914 creating a break-of-gauge station, NSW railways being standard gauge (4’8½”,1435mm), Victorian Railways, broad gauge (5’3”, 1600mm). Note that by rail it’s about 250km to Melbourne and 760km to Sydney.
The last NSWR train to Tocumwal ran in 1986 and the entire SG line was closed in 1988. The last VR passenger service to Tocumwal ran on 8 November 1975 but the line remains open for freight traffic: Pacific National runs container and grain trains to the Port of Melbourne several times each week.
Much of the original rail infrastructure has gone but the station buildings have been given a new lease of life as the Tocumwal Railway Heritage Museum. Unlike Newport Railway Museum where I am a volunteer, there’s no rolling stock, but there are lots of maps, pictures and other items of interest.
For more on Tocumwal’s railway history, see Newsrail, May 2005.
Museums
Just out of town is Tocumwal Aviation Museum which opened in 2021. Tocumwal might at first seem to be just another small relatively unimportant place but during WW2 it saw the construction of the largest aerodrome in the southern hemisphere which was home to many aircraft and was also a vast storage and repair depot for many aircraft types including Avro Anson, Beaufort, Boeing, Dakota, Hudson, Lancaster, Lincoln, Meteor, Mosquito, Mustang, Spitfire, Beaufighter, Vampire and Wirraway. No. 7 Operational Training Unit RAAF was based at Tocumwal from 1944. After the RAAF left Tocumwal in 1960, over 700 aircraft were scrapped through until 1963. There’s an excellent pictorial here.
Chrystie’s Classics and Collectibles Museum is a place which is hard to describe. You’ll find all sorts of things here: classic cars, old agricultural implements and a vast range of collectibles.
And … last but not least
My two nights in Tocumwal bracketed Anzac Day 2025. Anzac Day commemorates the ANZAC forces landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. As is the custom across Australia, the day was marked with a dawn service, then, later, the main service with guest speakers and wreath laying. The latter drew a huge crowd including all the children from local schools.
All in all an interesting and enjoyable trip, seeing and learning new things.
