Poster advertising rail travel

On 12 September 1854, the Melbourne and Hobson’s Bay Railway Company (MHBRC) opened Australia’s first steam railway line. The short track went from Flinders Street Station to Sandridge, which is now known as Port Melbourne. After the first rail line was built, other rail networks began to spring up across Australia. Sydney opened the first line in New South Wales just one year after Melbourne. Eventually, this meant that people and goods could easily move across the nation, and new communities and towns grew along main railways.