The last big oil crisis in 1979 led to a new rail revolution in WA. What will this one bring?

April 6, 2026 — 3:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Save this article for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.

The 1979 oil crisis quadrupled petrol prices in Australia and led to chaos in our cities and regions.

At that time, the Liberal government in Western Australia closed the Fremantle railway down as the first step in showing we were a city that would never need rail.

It was not good timing. I was a young academic and Fremantle councillor who had lived through the US oil crisis in 1973.

It had seared into my brain that cities and regions had to find a way to get away from oil vulnerability. I ran the campaign to save the Fremantle railway – and we won.

The Liberals were replaced in 1983 by an ALP government that promised to return........

© WA Today