Convict tramway


The Convict Tramway was hauled by human power in the form of convicts from the Port Arthur convict settlement. and was created to replace the hazardous sea voyage from Hobart to Port Arthur, Tasmania. Charles O'Hara Booth oversaw the construction of the tramway.
It opened in 1836 and ran for 8 km from Oakwood to Taranna. By most definitions, the tramway was the first passenger-carrying railway/tramway in Australia. An unconfirmed report says that it continued to Eaglehawk Neck and, if this was so, the length of the tramway would have been more than doubled. The tramway carried passengers and freight, and ran on wooden rails. The gauge is unknown. A sketch by Col. Mundy, which is held in the Tasmanian Archives, shows that, when the vehicle was coasting downhill, the four convicts providing the motive power would ride aboard it but otherwise would run alongside pushing the vehicle. The date of closure is unknown, but it was certainly prior to 1877.