Whistle While Working

While operational railways have ‘Whistle Posts’ installed, for the loco driver to operate an audible alert at upcoming public road crossings, what does such have in common with the O’Keefe Rail Trail? As one of Australia’s very first rail trails, this rail trail adopted the ‘whistle post’ design in 1993, as both an identity marker as well as a wayfinding sign.

These trail posts have both the trail’s name as well as the road’s name, and two are installation at every road crossing of the trail. For the trail user, this provides an alert to the intersection’s road name as a location reference point in case of needing emergency first responders.

The original trail whistle posts were manufactured in timber, and with the passing of time are requiring maintenance and in some cases replacement. The Friends of the Bendigo-Kilmore Rail Trail decided that when replacement of those posts was required, the new posts would be manufactured in metal.

With the trail’s manager the City of Greater Bendigo agreeing to provide funding for replacement posts, the Friends group’s Project Team selects a manufacturer and then organised a working bee of members to assemble and install the replacement posts. The outcome is a ‘win win’ for this popular rail trail, effective use of the trail’s annual maintenance budget, preserving a link with history, as well as providing important facilities for trail users.