1872 and some other years, was shown as being highly accurate with communities and cropping lands north of his line being abandoned after long dry spells. The entire railway is north of this line. Trucks and roads were becoming more reliable and utilised in South Australia. The 1910 Northern Territory Acceptance Act mandating a railway line between Darwin and Adelaide requiring a standard gauge railway, which would need to be less susceptible to flooding than the existing route designed for diesel-electric engines rather than steam. Improved railway engineering and construction methods allowed for improved design. The standard gauge upgrade of the southern section of the line from near Port Augusta to Maree placed pressure on the remaining narrow gauge sections that remained opened due to transfer and maintenance costs. Standard gauge line to Marree In 1949, both South Australia and the Federal Government enacted the Railway Standardisation (South Australia) Agreement Act which looked at the upgrade of all lines to standard gauge, including the Central Australia Line. The act was more of an overarching statement rather than a commitment to complete all lines in a set order or time. The Leigh Creek and Telford Cut Coalfields were first excavated in 1943 following a shortage of coal during World War II and between 1951 and 1954, discussions surrounded two route options to upgrade to standard gauge. Option B2 was upgrading the current line to Telford, the C option was the chosen option which was up to 32 km west of the current line. The South Australian and Federal governments bickered over by-passing the township of Quorn and it was only after a Royal Commission, that the Commonwealth Railways got their way with option C avoiding Quorn and the work commenced on the 255 km line. The South Australian Government and agriculturists wanted to extend the standard gauge line a further 88 km to Marree. This would reduce the bruising of the cattle and shorten the time to market as well as increase the number of cattle that could be transferred. Transferring livestock at Telford was considered problematic with coal dust and machinery. The federal minister of transport travelled to the area in mid-1954 and confirmed the extension from Telford Cut to Marree. The cost was set at 1,241,000 pounds, compared to 821,000 pounds to bring the existing line up to an acceptable level including ballasting and possible bridge replacement. The Minister