Adelaide railway station
railway station in Adelaide, South Australia
Adelaide railway station is the central terminus of the Adelaide Metro railway system. All lines approach the station from the west, and it is a terminal station with no through lines, with most of the traffic on the metropolitan network either departing or terminating here. It has nine below-ground platforms, all using broad gauge track. The station is located on the north side of North Terrace, west of Parliament House.
The Adelaide Casino occupies the majority of the station building, which no longer houses railway administrators. Adelaide station was also the terminus for regional and interstate passenger trains until their relocation to Keswick Terminal, now Adelaide Parklands Terminal, in 1984.
History
Early growth
Adelaide's first railway station opened on the current North Terrace site in 1856. It served the broad gauge line between Adelaide and Port Adelaide, which was the first government-owned and operated steam railway in the British Empire. The first passenger train departed from Adelaide station on 19 April 1856, carrying the Governor of South Australia and various dignitaries to a celebratory lunch at Port Adelaide. The original Adelaide station handled all passenger, freight and livestock traffic at the North Terrace site.
The public source identifies “Adelaide railway station” as railway station in Adelaide, South Australia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Adelaide, railway and station.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Adelaide railway station”, the useful work is to connect “railway station in Adelaide, South Australia” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4681770. Authority coordinates are -34.921, 138.596. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1984 and 1856.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Adelaide railway station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.