I have a cynical view, that no-one will ever be able to disprove, that there never was a geological barrier to constructing a second bridge and duplicating this section with the rest of the duplication/electrification project back in the 1950's.

My view is that the project ran out of money, and the excuse that "No suitble foundations could be found for the river crossing" is a crock. The replacement bridge over the Morwell River includes piles 36 metres deep(!) and even in the 1950's such an impediment would have been easy enough to deal with if a similar level of 'swampiness' was found there.

Perusal of VR records would indicate the duplication was terminated due to a lack of engineering capacity during the time of the construction of the north east standard gauge. There may also have been some redirection of already ordered materials. This was also the time it became obvious that the freight traffic foreseen, which was the driver for the duplication and electrification project, wasn't going to appear in the short term, and the necessity of duplication for capacity reasons was very low. That's not to say that the job was necessarily easy, just that it wasn't beyond the capabilities of the time.

Would DirtyBallast be able to quote some official government documentation, or a newspaper article, where they clearly claimed the duplication was cancelled due to "no suitable foundations could be found for the river crossing"??
Maybe DirtyBallast is simply repeating an old wives' tale that has no basis in reality.

Would DirtyBallast be able to quote some official government documentation, or a newspaper article, where they clearly claimed the duplication was cancelled due to "no suitable foundations could be found for the river crossing"??
Maybe DirtyBallast is simply repeating an old wives' tale that has no basis in reality.

As someone who lives in that exact area, and who has experience dealing with the mysterious subterranean content in the vicinity, it would not surprise me at all to find there were problems finding suitable foundations. Old timers in the area still talk about the problems building the rail bridge, and I can vouch for the fact that eight truckloads of ballast disappeared into one small section of soft ground on my property and I had to give up on running the road. The existing rail bridge is built on swamp ground and that swamp was primarily caused by the meandering of the Bunyip River.

With a Government proposal to duplicate the Bunyip - Longwarry track.

Would the section between Pakenham and Warragul be straight railed North and South track (no cross overs)

Would Bunyip's station be developed Into an Island platform.

Longwarry would most likely have a second platform built opposite It's existing.

Existing junctions at Bunyip and Longwarry would be removed. As both existing tracks are signalled for bi directional running. So expect bi directional signalling on New North Line between Bunyip to Longwarry. New single platform opposite existing platform at Bunyip. At Longwarry there should still be two separate platforms on double track on Dn side existing lx ?

As someone who lives in that exact area, and who has experience dealing with the mysterious subterranean content in the vicinity, it would not surprise me at all to find there were problems finding suitable foundations. Old timers in the area still talk about the problems building the rail bridge, and I can vouch for the fact that eight truckloads of ballast disappeared into one small section of soft ground on my property and I had to give up on running the road. The existing rail bridge is built on swamp ground and that swamp was primarily caused by the meandering of the Bunyip River.

The area near Bunyip river is difficult - that is not the point.
I was asking about the OFFICIAL documentation of the reason for cancelling the second line.
pawanoro has quoted VR documentation that says the second line was cancelled because resources were redirected to the North East line.
This contradicts DirtyBallasts' unsubstantiated story, that VR claimed the reason for cancellation was the difficult geology.
Try and stay on topic....
Is there any OFFICIAL documentation that shows VR claimed they couldn't duplicate the line, due to the difficult geology?
It appears there isn't.

Well the Premier announced today that if his crowd were relected they'd duplicate this section and put extra trains on to Sale and also to Bairnsdale.

Back when Gippsland was first settled, almost all communication with Melbourne was via steam packets from Port Albert as the impassible "Great Swamp" cut off almost all overland communication with the rest of Victoria. Drainage works took up vast amounts of money in the late 19th century and they are still visible from the South Gippsland Highway.