All Aboard Brisbane Phoenix Tram 549 (Outback Queensland, Australia)

            There it stood. 

It was the middle of an intense heat wave - people were going to the beaches for the water and the breeze, but we went to the desert amid the scorching, unforgiving weather ... but it was still there ... one of the last surviving decayed Brisbane trams left in the greater Brisbane region, (potentially the entire state) simply plonked on a regional property left to elemental fury.

I had waited a significant amount of time to gaze upon this lost and forgotten treasure that was tipped off to me by a hardcore tram enthusiast. It took months to arrange a day to go, but it was worth the wait.

This tram was so important to document in its current state of sad neglect because it represents the history of Brisbane's tram networks unfortunate demise. Furthermore, this tram is a Phoenix Tram, in which only eight models were ever built - four remain, and this tram, number 549, is one of those last remaining Phoenix trams.

In 1925 the number of passengers carried per annum by the trams was about 82 million. The number dropped somewhat during the depression years until at the beginning of the War in 1939 it had risen again to about 92 million. During the War years due to petrol rationing and other causes, the passengers per annum rose rapidly to 160 million for the year 1944/45.

After the War the increasing use of the private motorcars and the growth of the Council's bus fleet gradually reduced the number of tram passengers to 110 million in 1950 and about 80 million by 1960. By 1969 when the tramway services were finally discontinued the annual number of tram passengers had dropped to 46 million. The annual number of bus passengers at the same time was 30 million, which showed a very considerable decline in the use of public transport during recent years.

The decision to discontinue the use of trams in Brisbane in favour of a complete motorbus system was made in June 1968. This decision was inevitable in view of the adopted scheme of future highways and expressways for the city of Brisbane and the replacement of Victoria Bridge by a concrete structure without tram tracks.

Although Bribane's tram network was a striving mode of public transport for generations, the city only ever had three tram depots. The Light Street Depot in the Fortitude Valley, the Ipswich Road Tram Depot on the corners of Cornwall Street and Ipswich Road, Buranda - - and of course the renowned Paddington Tram Depot which burnt to the ground in 1963 (hence the name "Phoenix" behind the eight trams that were made following this blaze) A blaze so furious it is rumoured that one could see the fire as far as the Toowoomba Range (127km away from Brisbane). 

As the trams usage declined across Brisbane, both Paddington and Ipswich Road were replaced by shopping villages that still stand today (2017) with various remnants in the car lots and on the walls of the centres themselves - - the Light Street Depot was owned by the council for decades until its demolition in the early 2000's to make way for the Fortitude Valley Homemaker Centre.

There are still an abundance of tram remnants scattered throughout Brisbane today - tram stops on the side of the road overgrown with weeds (Gladstone Road, Highgate Hill), tram span poles on Canning Bridge (Norman Park), a timber tram span pole in the city (Leichardt Street, Spring Hill) and of course ghostly tram tracks being unearthed from the bitumen roads as it was cheaper to bury the tram lines than dig them up and recycle them. 

Today, Brisbane's tram history can be found mostly in the Brisbane Tramway Museum at Ferny Grove.

Source: Brisbane Tramway Museum.

Taken on: January 1, 2017

Tags:

abandoned

tram

historic

heritage

brisbane

queensland

australia

Light rail

QLD

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Camera: Nikon D5500, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec, 10mm (=15mm), ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

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