03/11/2026
Mitta railway story
Off the Track
(pic : Mishap on the Tallangatta-Corryong line)
In the late 1880’s Mitta was humming: gold mining was in full swing, farmers were doing well.
Local community leaders lined up to part of the big push for railway lines to connect anywhere of significance.
No different today when every small town wants connectivity to mobile phone and the internet, a mark of success in the nineteenth century was to have firstly a telegraph connection and then a railway line to your town. It was considered a mark of civilised progress.
It would be no surprise that the issue of railway lines was highly political, driven by competitive community groups and at times the conflict became ugly. The economy was firing, Melbourne was one of the richest cities in the World and money was being speculated and splashed in all directions. Surely a few pounds could be diverted to help Mitta with a railway connection.
The line from Wodonga to Tallangatta had been built but that wasn’t without bitterness from the Beechworth community who wanted the Upper Murray line to be an extension of the Beechworth line. That round was lost.
With the rail to Tallangatta operational the Mitta Mitta Railway League was established, yes, to extend the line along the Valley right up to the hamlet of Mitta. But then the Kiewa crowd became involved, maybe the Mitta line should transit Kiewa to Wodonga and bypass Tallangatta, that would give Kiewa access as well ?
The campaign was a hot community topic and hundreds attended the various public meetings at Mitta, a railway line was imperative if the Valley was to prosper.
Opportunism was alive and well then too, Omeo wanted a railway line connection to Bairnsdale, connecting this to Mitta would be a great idea ! Just imagine how good it would be to connect Gippsland with north-east Victoria with a line running over the Great Divide.
But the economic boom was about to be a bust, a terrible depression and the Federation Drought halted any extravagant and poorly costed ideas of a railway along the Mitta Valley.
Around 1909 the whole idea was resurrected with new groups popping up everywhere to get themselves included on the now extensive Victorian Railways map. Mitta refreshed its lobby group, Eskdale set up a Railway League (how dare Mitta suggest that the line should be on the opposite side of the River!) and vested interests all had their penny’s worth. The usual squabbling diluted the lobbying power and with the Government getting confused messages, the scenario was not helped by a big downturn in local mining activities.
The idea was looking expensive. Many little bridges need to be built along the Valley and what happens when the periodic floods make the Valley impassable? Not a problem, local groups proposed that the cost could be defrayed by making the line narrow gauge and having the line closed for a few weeks a year wouldn’t be a problem.
Unlike in the 1880’s the Government was now wiser and looking at cost-benefit ratios. The Mitta Valley proposal didn’t stack up, the quixotic idea was buried for good.
