Western Australia Timber Company 0-4-0 Locomotives in Australia

Class Ballaarat (Locobase 20454)

Data from Philippa Rogers, "Ballaarat- its story", Light Railways, No 224 (April 2012), pp. 3-11. See also "Ballaarat Engine" entry on the City of Bussleton website at [], last accessed 28 October 2018.

Two points of history underscore the importance of this little well-tank locomotive. One is that it was the was Western Australia's first steam locomotive to enter service and the other is that it has been preserved and still on display in Bussleton, WA as the oldest surviving Australian-built steam locomotive. Its other firsts include the first to be built at Ballaarat for Australian use (three small engines were sold to New Zealand, where they and their wooden railway had short careers) and the first to be built in Australia to run on the 3' 6" (aka Cape) gauge.

The Ballaarat was designed by M G Robinson, Victoria Foundry's general foreman. The historical consensus says that Robinson's influence was the Fletcher, Jennings & Company in England, which was a well-known producer of tank locomotives. James Hunt, of the Victoria Foundry, was credited with turning out the engine.

Ballaarat's service career was actually quite short. Its customer built an 18 km (11.2 mile) line to connect Lockeville with its timber holdings. In the early 1870s, the WATC outpaced its profitability by building two more mills and extending its line to 30 km (18.6 mi). Some small modifications included reducing the wheelbase by a foot, replacing the crosshead water pump with one driven by an eccentric mounted on the driving axle, and adding both a spark-arresting stack and a four-wheel water tender.

By 1877, however, the Ballaarat was found in a "dilapidated condition" as the WATC floundered. Ten years later, the company's finances forced them to close the mills and auction off the assets in June 1888. Although Ballaarat remained available in a steadily declining state, no effective plan for bringing it back into service emerged.

In 1897, however, fortune apparently smiled as the engine was stored out of the weather in a shed ...which burned in 1900 and badly damaged it. All the wooden components on the engine and tender, including the boiler lagging and the buffer beams, were consumed. But much of the running gear survived.

But few in Western Australian government were interested in putting up the money needed to render the Ballaarat display-worthy. On the other hand, the Municipality of Busselton persuaded the engine's then-current owners to donate it to them. The Western Australian Government Railways examined the possibility of restoring the locomotive and it threw up its hands as well until 1929. Interest quickly grew in having the Ballaarat's remains take part in WA's Centenary celebration by placing it on a horse-drawn cart.

Years of discussion, negotiation, debate, and firm purpose finally resulted in moving the Ballaarat to a display in Victoria Square on 1 October 1937. (See Philippa Rogers' much more detailed account.)

The now-City of Bussleton's description of the now long-lived Ballaarat display cited above begins "The Ballaarat Engine is fondly remembered by many locals as a place to clamber and play in Victoria Square at the entry to Bussleton. A few remember getting their fingers slammed in the swinging doors or stuck in parts where they probably shouldn't have been."

In August 2012, the Ballaarat was moved to South West Machining Centre. "The engine was completely disassembled, " the City' account says. More than 500 volunteer hours were consumed in restoring the locomotive: "rusted parts brushed by hand and sometimes soaked in molasses. The bigger parts of the engine were sandblasted, undercoat and professional top coat were applied locally."

It was installed at the Railway House, a renovated railway station that opened as the Busselton Visitor Centre in March 2017.