The Footscray Local Tramways

An act empowering the Footscray Municipal Council to establish a tramway system was passed in Dec 1915, and in October 1916 the duly-constituted Footscray Tramways Trust was authorized to commence construction. Contracts were issued for the supply of plant and equipment, however intervention of the Great War slowed progress. In the meantime the Victorian Government legislated to create a single Melbourne tramway authority. The Footscray Tramway Trust pushed ahead with construction of the tramway system, but it was overtaken by other events, and prior to commencement it came under the control of the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board. The MMTB completed construction of the system, and services commenced on September 6th 1921, much as envisaged by the then-redundant Footscray Tramways Trust. Until 1954 it operated as an isolated system, thereafter being joined to the main Melbourne network via interconnecting tracks that linked two extensions constructed as wartime measures during the Second World War. This link was ultimately used by bogie trams operating a cross-town service between Footscray and Moonee Ponds, but for the whole life of the Footscray system all local services were operated exclusively by various types of single-truck tramcars. This DVD tells the story of the Footscray tramways from its opening in 1921 to closure in 1962.