Subterranean Adelaide - The Jubilee Railway Line

Subterranean Adelaide

The Jubilee Railway Line

One of Adelaide's forgotten railways existed purely to service the Jubilee Exhibition that was to be located on the corners of North Terrace and Frome Road in the Adelaide.

The line travelled along the River Torrens from the Adelaide Railway Station, across where the Festival Theatre now stands, under King William Street on a diagonal line. It then travelled beside the Torrens Parade grounds, and around to the festival grounds, where the Jubilee was to be held, into an area that is now part of the Adelaide University.

The Jubilee Line was built for the sole purpose of getting heavy machinery and exhibits through to the Exhibition and opened in 1886. It was then used for another 40 years for moving heavy objects into the pavilion of the exhibition and University buildings.
Between 1899 and 1902 it was used to transport soldiers from the Torrens Parade grounds to Adelaide Station in preparation for them to catch trains from Adelaide Station to Port Adelaide and various other ports before setting sail to South Africa to face the perils of the Boer War.

The line was also used to take patients during the Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1919 from Adelaide Station to a temporary quarantine station made of tents in the oval of the old Jubilee Exhibition grounds.

The showgrounds were moved in 1924 to their current position at Wayville, and the lines were considered redundant, so they were removed in 1927

The tunnel is still intact in one section underneath King William Street but was blocked on both sides in around 1928. Since then the road above has been widened multiple times, but underneath, there probably still lies some train tracks and a very short tunnel, the only remaining remnants of the Jubilee Railway line other than a flat parcel of land between the Torrens Parade ground and northern boundary fence of the Government House Estate.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2015