The Serviceton Railway Station

Serviceton
Tiny railway town on the South Australian border
Surrounded by vast open plains, Serviceton is a tiny railway town located adjacent the Victorian-South Australian border on the Western Highway, 437 km north-west of Melbourne.

The land here was first occupied by Europeans in 1846. Thomas Short, who established the 'Cove' run in 1849, employed a station hand who turned out to be Dan Morgan, later to become one of Australia's most notorious bushrangers. Upon being dismissed after an argument, Morgan destroyed Short's provisions and stole a horse. With an Aboriginal tracker, Short pursued Morgan to the Murray River and took him by surprise but was shot in the knee while dismounting, permanently crippling him.

Small selectors began to arrive from South Australia in 1877 and began growing wheat. The town developed when the railway arrived in 1886. In those pre-Federation times this meant that the town became a major border crossing and an important customs station for goods passing between the colonies of South Australia and Victoria. Consequently the town's early population comprised a Victorian and a South Australian station master. By 1887, when the station was built, there was also two engine sheds but, with the lack of local water, the original water reservoir for the trains was constructed astride the boundary line. The station (and hence the town) was named after Sir James Service, premier of Victoria in 1880 and from 1883-86.

The customs office set up shop in the railway station to ensure duty was paid for goods taken interstate but the law was difficult to enforce as the town was in the 'Disputed Territory', a strip of land 4.5 km in width which stretched along the length of the state border. The disagreement over the ownership of this land began in the late 1840s when the border was marked with identifying features which were legally recognised as denoting the official boundary. These marks were supposed to follow the 141st degree of east longitude but, owing to a surveying error, they had all been placed 4.5 km west of the meridian.

Consequently, those bringing goods to Serviceton from South Australia claimed they were still in South Australia and hence owed no duty to the Victorian customs officers (whose stamp bore the words 'Serviceton - Victoria') while those bringing goods from Victoria could claim they were still in that state and hence owed no duty to South Australian customs (whose stamp read 'Serviceton - South Australia'). Smuggling was, therefore, a profitable business until the erroneous markers were accepted as denoting the borderline in 1913.

The arrival of the station spurred the development of the town. Over the next two years a post office, several general stores, a boarding house and hotel were established and a butcher, hairdresser, plumber, chemist and bricklayer set up premises. The National Bank rented a room at the hotel and a creamery opened in 1891. A fence was erected along the entire length of the border in 1888-89 to keep rabbits and dingoes out of South Australia.

The station was closed in 1986 and is now in a state of some disrepair and today there are about a half dozen remaining residents.

Things to see:  

Railway Station
The town's Late Victorian railway station was built in 1887 of red bricks transported from Horsham. The enormous 70-metre platform seems out of place in this no-man's land. Inside the station are the old customs house for good passing from one state to another. There is a mortuary for bodies being shipped across the border and there is a lock-up which was used for prisoners who were being transported interstate. Everything needed to be unloaded and put onto another train.

Tolmer Rest Area
Tolmer Rest Area, 4 km north-west of town, is where the gold escort crossed the border in 1852 and 1853. It is named after Alexander Tolmer, then police commissioner of South Australia, who devised the escort and led it on its first three trips. It was intended to reverse the currency drain from South Australia during the Victorian goldrushes by bringing some of the gold back to Adelaide, a town which had been virtually deserted by hopeful prospectors. In this it was a successful venture as around one million pounds worth of the precious metal passed through this spot during 18 excursions in the years 1852 and 1853.