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BLACKJACK ROAD RAILWAY PRECINCT (MURRAY VALLEY RLWY, MELB TO ECHUCA)

Location BLACKJACK ROAD HARCOURT, MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE File Number FOL/17/3644 Level Registered

[1/3] BLACKJACK ROAD RAILWAY [2/3] 1 blackjack road railway [3/3] H1783 H1783 plan

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Blackjack Road railway precinct forms part of the Murray Valley Railway (Melbourne to Echuca line). Opened in five stages from February 1859 to September 1864, the Murray Valley Railway was the largest of the Colony’s first two main trunk lines. The inability of the line’s original private promoters - Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Company - to raise sufficient funds to construct the line, led to the government purchasing the company and embracing a public railway system. The Government’s decision to construct the line in 1856 was accompanied by the formation of the Victorian Railways Department. The building of the line during the early 1860s reflected the strategic economic issues of the day: servicing the important goldfields of Castlemaine and Bendigo, and capturing the Murray River and Riverina trade for the Port of Melbourne. With a labour force of more than 6,000 men, the Melbourne to Echuca line was the Colony’s largest capital works project of its time. The line is still used today for public transport and freight services and comprises a very large number of structures and facilities of varying ages, conditions and degrees of operational and business significance.

How is it significant?
The Blackjack Road railway precinct is of historical and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
The Blackjack Road railway precinct (comprising the Blackjack Road rail-overbridge, road culvert, large granite culvert and associated embankment) is historically and scientifically significant as an integral part of the railway line and is an important representative sample of one of the earliest and grandest capital works projects in Victorian history. The identified features comprising the precinct are all substantially intact and provide a crucial reminder of the adoption of English engineering and architectural standards and the role of the Victorian Railway Department in developing the Colony’s engineering expertise.

The Blackjack Road railway bridge illustrates the characteristic solid granite type of bridge which was used on the Harcourt section of the line. The use of local granite (from quarries on nearby Mount Alexander) on the line was a pioneering force behind the development of Harcourt‘s quarrying industry.

The Blackjack Road railway precinct makes an important contribution in defining the character of the Victorian railway network.