The Maldon-Dombarton Rail Link: Lost Sydney

PHOTO ALBUM 1: www.nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW%3Adombarto… PHOTO ALBUM 2: www.flickr.com/photos/gunzel412/albums/72157607633… MY ANNOTATED MAP INCLUDING LINKS TO PHOTOS!: www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1BbCp0WZbfa31r5… (More links in the description) Hey all! Hope you enjoy this video :) I've been captivated by the unfinished Maldon-Dombarton Rail Link since I was in year 10 and stumbled upon a news article on the project, so it's honestly really exciting to get to make a documentary on the line all these years later. What do you all think about the Maldon-Dombarton Railway? Should they finish constructing it? Should they not bother? If they did finish it, should they allow passenger services on the line? Let me know below!

Please note the surname of Premier Nick Greiner, who cancelled the Maldon-Dombarton railway is pronounced like “China”. His nickname was Slimey Greiney. When the M1 (then called F3) between Wahroonga and Waitara opened in 1990 it included the first ever sound barrier walls in NSW and were in Mr Greiners electorate of Ku-Ring Gai. Now quite common, in 1990 sound barrier walls were seen as an expensive luxury for Mr Greiner’s constituents and led to them being known as “The Great Wall of Greiner”. PS love your work, thank you, keep it up !

There's a unfinished half built railway much closer to the city and it's something very few people know about. It's a partially cut loop line that goes from Waverton / Wollstonecraft towards Crows Nest. It was to be the missing link (of many missing links) to the northern beaches. Lots of vegetation covers parts that were cut.

I used to work for the power company and we had to patrol the powerlines in that area. We used to drive along the train line quite often, a lot of it had the ballast already laid, was like a road. Drove through a lot of the cuttings too, was just so interesting, and since i was legally in there, why wouldn't you. Great video mate.

As someone who used to frequent between Sydney and Moss Vale on the train, when going past this place i always wondered what this bridge to nowhere was, and its history. Thanks for this story it filled in some curious blank spots.

I grow up just down the tracks from this bridge (can even see a dam on my families old property in one of the drone shots) on the Maldon side and spent many days after school sitting on this bridge looking down to the river. Thanks for covering this, it brings back many memories.

what isn't taken into account is just how geologically unstable and maintenance intensive the current south coast line is between Waterfall and Thirroul. It was built using picks and shovels 120+ years ago. We're one bad east coast low or landslide away from the line being completely knocked out for months or years. That's exactly what happened last year. Keep in mind how many people commute to Sydney from the Illawarra and how much of the states exports arrive to Port Kembla via the SCL. The mix of cargos at Port Kembla are also very different to back in the 80s; it's one of the biggest ports in the country for coal, grain, autos, refined fuels and bulk goods, and soon LNG. In the future it's the preferred location for the state's second container terminal. The port can't grow unless it has the rail infrastructure to support it.

A visit to Mount Ousley Road, the primary route into Wollongong, will very quickly inform you why this piece of rail infrastructure is still so desperately needed. Huge coal rucks, including B doubles that were never intended to come down the escarpment, clutter this roadway making it unsafe for regular cars etc. The current government is planning to improve sections of the road by installing a purpose built truck lane. All well and good BUT if this railway was completed there would be far less incidents with trucks. As reported, the original concept showed great foresight for movement of coal from western fields but a subsequent Greiner Liberal Government must have been "convinced" by trucking barons to not complete the job. Hopefully something will happen with the Federal Government and the expected change of State Govt. A completion of the line could also provide good access for Illawarra people to the new airport with a branch line with some passenger trains. A very similar thing happened with the Sandy Hollow rail link.

I did a project on this story once many years ago. Love that you are covering it! It holds such promise for connecting the area.

Maybe it could be converted into a bike path.

I grew up in Wilton and remember this line being built. As kids we went south over Picton Rd and over the hill to walk along the line being developed.

Thanks, been the story most of my life growing up south of Wollongong. Knew about the unfinished bridge but didn't realise how much of the route was complete, a real shame they can't open it up to walkers/riders at least. Edit: Fun fact there used to be a regular passenger service that ran between Unanderra and Moss Vale as well, stopping at Summit Tank.

Another wasted project for Wollongong but put thousands of trucks on the road instead ..yep doggy deals going on ..

Nick Greiner was duty bound to cancel anything a labor government started, no matter how much had been commenced or indeed the benefits to be had by it's completion.

I worked on that rail line and watched 2 men die and one badly injured in an explosion and the line was very near complete when work was halted and companies paid out millions to cease work and walk away, yeah two men died horribly for nothing

I've said it before, and will say it now, the Maldon - Dombarton line would have been, and would still be, of more benefit as a dual use line, of freight and pax. Not necessarily as a HSR service, but even just to get people from SW Sydney to Wollongong, and the South Coast, without needing to backtrack. When I lived in Campbelltown, 2006 - 2017, and before that Liverpool, 1989 - 2006, people regularly lamented the lack of rail access to Wollongong beaches, UoW, etc, from these areas, without needing to backtrack toward Sydenham or Wolli Creek, and the few bus services, from Campbelltown, are always crowded, to the point of being dangerous.

Would've been nice to have a direct link between Wollongong and South West / West Sydney instead of having to go all the way to Central

As former freight train crew, I'm one of the comparitively few people that has seen The MSV-Unanderra line in recent years, and that includes the Avon East tunnel portal which sits adjacent the existing line in clear view. The remote ruggedness of the location is probably difficult to appreciate without seeing it in the flesh... The 3km long tunnel would have been an impressive feat of engineering if completed. Other remnants of the incomplete project remain in the form of a duplicated section of the MSV-Unanderra line that abruptly goes back to single line with a crossover just before the tunnel if travelling in the downline direction. a stub of this second track extends for a short length beyond this crossover before just ending and going nowhere. There are also steel stauncheons installed trackside for the carriage of overhead wiring, but with no wiring fitted beyond the Unanderra junction with the south coast line. Again, these stauncheons abruptly before the tunnel. Many people mistakenly think thesr were installed to allow interurban passenger traffic to use the line, however they were actually a throwback to a time when electric freight traction was still seen to have many benefits of cost and utilty.in 1983, the State Rail Authority had invested in an almost brand new fleet of electric freight locomotives intended primarily for use on heavy coal workings to and from port teminals including Port Kembla Inner Harbour. By 2002 however with Freightcorp having been sold off to private interests to become Pacific National and the benefits of electric freight haulage being deemed insufficient to maintain the fleet in operation, and the infrastructure arely sufficiemt to supply the power demands, these had all been withdrawn from service. Had the line been completed, the electrical overhead network would also have been extended inland to the main south line and onto the respective coal branches.

12:29 a man died in an explosive accident. I believe it was this line in early 1985. The court case showed 6 failures in procedure. Although no proper compensation. Maybe this caused problems with finalising the road.. This would remove so many traffic problems in Wollongong.

Answer is simples. Nick Greiner.