required for cable traction, preferring instead to retain their steam trams, until most of the system was converted to electric operation between 1898 and 1910. Smaller provincial towns in New South Wales, such as Maitland, Broken Hill and Newcastle had steam tram systems operated by the New South Wales Government. Rockhampton, Queensland, also had a steam tram system, which was operated by the City of Rockhampton. With the exception of Newcastle, these systems had closed by the 1930s. Gold mining towns, with their rapid growth and wealth soon adopted trams, with Bendigo and Ballarat in Victoria and Kalgoorlie and Leonora in Western Australia all adopting electric tram systems. Bendigo initially opened a battery-operated tramline to Eaglehawk, but as this proved unsuccessful it was replaced by steam-trams; these were electrified and expanded circa 1902. Ballarat electrified their horse tram network shortly after. These two Victorian systems survived until 1972 and 1971 respectively, following their takeover by the state government through the State Electricity Commission, whereas the West Australian examples ceased operations in the 1950s as a result of the economic decline of those towns at the time. Electrification was quickly adopted in Australian systems, with Hobart and Brisbane the first systems to be electrified in 1893 and 1897 respectively. Hobart thus was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to operate a successful electric tramway system. It was also the only Australian city to use the European-style bow collector, instead of Frank Sprague's trolley pole system. Hobart was also the first city outside Europe to employ electric double-decker trams. The Hobart system retained a distinctly "English" appearance throughout its existence. Perth had an electric tram system in operation between 1898 and 1958. Adelaide was the last major city to convert its trams to electric operation, in 1908, with the system closing (except for the Glenelg tram line) in 1958. However, Melbourne did not complete its cable tram electrification program until 1956 when today's Route 96 opened, having been converted from a diesel bus which had replaced the cable tram. A distinctive feature of many Australasian trams was the drop-centre, a lowered central section between bogies (wheel-sets), to make passenger access easier by reducing the number of steps required to get inside of the vehicle. One school of thought proposes that these were derived from Hedley-Doyle stepless car, (named after two employees of the New York Railways Company), two of which came