It's a dizzy height for trains

Nestled between Trentham and Daylesford in the central Victoria Spa country is the quaint and unobtrusive Bullarto Railway Station. Now part of the Central Highland Tourist Railway (CHTR) which runs on a section of the defunct broad gauge (1,600mm/5 ft 3 inch) Daylesford to Carlsruhe Line that faithfully served the community from 1880 until 1978 when it lost a battle with economics and bloody minded Government becoming slaved to car and truck interests.

Fortunately, due to the tireless efforts of a hardy band of volunteers, a small and picturesque 7 kilometre/4 mile section of the Line from Daylesford to Bullarto operates as Tourist Railway, mostly on weekends and during holiday periods. Though at present, due to fire damage along a 1.6 kilometre/1 mile section resulting from the deadly February 2009 bushfires, the Line is truncated a few kilometres outside of Daylesford. It has been assessed that to fully repair the damage done by the fires it will cost in the vicinity of $250,000 - an enormous sum for this volunteer supported railway. Nonetheless, according to their website the Line will soon be operating again to Musk (an intermediate Station between Bullarto and Daylesford). Then, over time, eventually back to Bullarto, currently the highest active (well it will be again soon hopefully) Railway Station in Victoria at 2,452 feet/747 metres.

An enjoyable walk is to alight from the Woodend to Daylesford Bus at Bullarto township and follow the Railway into Daylesford. The Line passes through verdant stands of eucalypts opening up into grazing land before arriving at the preserved Daylesford Railway Station, once a bustling terminus in the heyday years from the 1880s up until the 1950s, when not only a Railway Line came in from the east from Carlsruhe but also from the south-west from Creswick North/Ballarat.

Bullarto is located 98 kilometres/61 miles from Melbourne and if you blinked you might miss it, except for its famous and sleepy railway station and its unfussed claim to fame. It has a population of 358 (which astonished me I must say) and 144 dwellings. Apparently, of the 358 people who reside in and around Bullarto, 50.3% are male and 49.7% female. Though, one day a Statistician will emerge from behind their coke bottle glasses and explain to me what part of the human body the .3% and the .7% relate to?