File:Inside the construction of Sleep's Hill Tunnel(GN02053).jpg

This photo shows the inside of the tunnel with construction workers in the foreground. Sleep's Hill new railway tunnel near Eden Hills was constructed in approximately 1883 for trains on the Adelaide to Belair line. It served a number of ballast quarries for the South Australian Railways (SAR). A third tunnel with a double track was completed in 1919. Sleep's Hill is named after Samuel Sleep, an early colonist who arrived in South Australia in the late 1830's. RX90 steam trains, similar to Goolwa's cockle train, used the track until 1919 when the Adelaide to Belair section was duplicated with a dual-track system further east. When the line was abandoned, the tunnels became an exploration area for locals until the Japanese entered World War II and Adelaide feared air raids. The 150m tunnel in Eden Hills stored the State Library's most valuable documents, artefacts and records, while the 290m tunnel in Panorama stored ammunition. In the 1960s, the tunnels became mushroom farms and about 2000 boxes would be exported each week.