Minnivale Rail and Heritage Centre

A collection of rail carriages in a disused wheatbin

Have you ever wondered what was inside the large silver wheat bins which litter the Wheatbelt landscape? Wonder no more! Step inside a decommissioned wheatbin which houses a collection of rail carriages. The Minnivale Wheat Bin opened in 1964 as a bulk handling wheat facility. A railway line goes into the centre of the wheat bin. This is a new addition to the bin and was installed to get the locomotive and carriages into the museum. Rail carriages were once filled with grain, from a siding rail, which went alongside the wheatbin. Amongst the rolling stock on display, you can see a ‘bogie van,’ a type of rail wagon made in Western Australia for bulk handling grain and an original diesel locomotive used on the Wheatbelt railway lines. There is even a Kalamazoo, a hand motion pump cart, in the collection, which sits on train tracks.

Address:

Hewitt Street
Minnivale WA 6462
Australia

Opening Hours
Contact the Dowerin District Museum on the numbers provided
Do you smell rabbit?

This rail carriage was used for carrying rabbit carcasses to Perth. In the early 1900s rabbit populations had reached plague proportions and by the 1920s there was a large industry in trapping rabbits...

Split carriage

Passenger rail services did not operate to some small towns in WA. For locations which did not have the passenger rail service, customers travelled in a dual carriage such as this. This brake carriage...

Dowerin trolley

The spelling on this trolley is probably the closest to how a local might pronounce Dowerin. Local train stations in Western Australia had their own locally branded trolleys, to ensure they didn't go...

More Golden Outback collections

Wartime memories

Housed inside the historic Boulder Town Hall, the Goldfields War Museum's intriguing collection tells the story of local people fighting on the frontlines and homefront during times of conflict....

Old school local history collection and research in the library

The local history collection at the Merredin Library was started to gather items not connected to military and railway history, captured in other local collections. The Merredin Library is located in...

Saving Goldfields Aboriginal languages for all of us

The Goldfields Aboriginal Language Centre (GALC) is an Aboriginal research organisation focussed on the recording, linguistic analysis, preservation and use of the Aboriginal languages of the region...

A meeting place between the Goldfields and the Wheatbelt

A visit to the Yilgarn Museum is a journey through the history of Southern Cross, which is sometimes referred to as the gateway to the Goldfields region. The museum building is the original courthouse...

While you're in the area

Filter
Dowerin Short Stay Accommodation & Caravan Park
Accommodation
Dowerin Short Stay Accommodation & Caravan Park
Dowerin is a one stop shop for visitors and is only a 2 hour scenic drive...
Corner of Fraser Street and East Street, Dowerin, WA 6461
Dowerin Museum
Attraction
Dowerin Museum
The Dowerin Museum offers visitors an opportunity to see what life on the...
16 Cottrell Street, Dowerin, WA 6461
Wyalkatchem CBH Agricultural Museum
Attraction
Wyalkatchem CBH Agricultural Museum
The Wyalkatchem CBH Museum is a fine collection of agricultural history...
Lot 1500 Railway Terrace, Wyalkatchem, WA 6485