Swan View to Parkerville

​​Plan your Trip

Distance       8.4km

Gradient        0.9 – 2.0m

Timings         Walk 2 hours   Cycle 40 mins

Points of Interest      

Swan View Station

Swan View Tunnel (built 1896)

John Forrest National Park

Hovea Falls

Parkerville Fire Recovery Statue The Volunteer

History

SWAN VIEW

Swan View was identified by C Y O'Connor as an alternative route running parallel to the Jane Brook line to alleviate the problems encountered near Boya which had step gradients and sharp curves and was known as Cape Horn.

Swan View Tunnel is the earliest railway tunnel in Western Australia's history. O'Connor designed the 340m tunnel to overcome a granite barrier formed by a fold in the Darling Range. The granite was fractured and highly unstable resulting in internal rock falls, so it was lined with bricks.  The construction of the line was a major engineering project, a vast amount of rubble was moved to construct embankments along with intensive blasting and digging using only picks and shovels, dynamite and horsepower.

The new line was opened on 1 July 1896, however poor ventilation, heat and noxious fumes from the locomotives within the tunnel sometimes affecting drivers and firemen. The first recorded driver death from carbon monoxide poisoning was in 1942.  This forced the government to find a suitable deviation line which was built around the tunnel in 1945, which was used by the "up trains", while the "down trains" continued to use the tunnel. The tunnel ceased to be used for rail traffic after the new Avon Valley rail route was opened in 1966. 

Today the bed of the former railway line is composed of clay and loose pea gravel with scatterings of blue metal, evidence of its former use as a railway line.  The tunnel remains in a fair condition with a heavy layer of soot on the ceiling.

After Swan View the line ascends East through natural bushland, steep ravines and waterfalls and into John Forrest National Park which was declared a conservation reserve in 1947.  The reserve has three wooden railway bridges - Jane Brook Bridge, Deep Creek Bridge and Hovea Falls Bridge all which span Jane Brook waterway.

PARKERVILLE

During the railway's construction in 1894-1895 the Department of Lands realised the demand for fertile land along Jane Brook.  The Perth City Council Quarry opened in Parkerville in 1897 supplying blue metal to pave the Perth streets until 1919.  The quarry was a major employer in Parkerville and declared a town site in 1900.