 The line served a strategic economic need of serving the important goldfields of Castlemaine and Bendigo (then called Sandhurst), and capturing for Melbourne the trade in wool and other goods from northern Victoria and the Riverina which were formerly shipped through South Australia via the Murray River.Two tunnels were built on the line.The Elphinstone Tunnel, long, was built in brick and bluestone as a double-track horseshoe profile tunnel, and was completed in 1860.