Well it’s back to the maps for me. I knew there was a private railway from Fairfield station to the blue metal quarries at Prospect, I just couldn’t put my finger on where I had seen reference to it. And here it is in the 1940 Robinson’s Street Directory, showing it starting at Fairfield and running as a tram line beside the roadway for most of the distance to Windemere under the name of “Sydney And Suburbs Blue Metal Company”. Of course another private railway – or tramway if you prefer – ran to the northern side of the same area from Toongabbie.
(And yes, I have corrected “1926″ to “1940″.)
The Toongabbie tramway is here.
Well it’s back to the maps for me. I knew there was a private railway from Fairfield station to the blue metal quarries at Prospect, I just couldn’t put my finger on where I had seen reference to it. And here it is in the 1940 Robinson’s Street Directory, showing it starting at Fairfield and running as a tram line beside the roadway for most of the distance to Windemere under the name of “Sydney And Suburbs Blue Metal Company”. Of course another private railway – or tramway if you prefer – ran to the northern side of the same area from Toongabbie.
(And yes, I have corrected “1926″ to “1940″.)
The Toongabbie tramway is here.
Where will I start? This is a bit of a brain dump folks…. I should say I grew up in Marrickville, hence the immediate interest…
- In fact I grew up in Charles Street, so this web reference to Stuart Alchin Laing, “born at Marrickville in May 1896″ is interesting. Stuart left a will dated 23rd August 1917 stating in part that “I devise and bequeath all my real estate unto my mother Charlotte Laing wife of Charles (sic) Laing of “Tara” Charles Street Marrickville Sydney in the State of NSW. ”
- Do I know which house was the aforementioned “Tara”? No, but I’ll keep looking…
- Interesting that the Princes Highway was, in part, called Cooks River Road, extending as you’d expect from Parramatta Road to Cooks River. Before that it was known as Bulanaming Road (until the 1820s) and perhaps also as Newtown Road (once New Town store lent its name to the district, anyway.
- The section of Cooks River Road between Bligh Street and St. Peters Station was renamed as King Street in October 1877.
- A local government document on Marrickville village history may be found here. Especially interesting to me is that “Marrickville Road’s length formed a portion of the extensive farms and grazing areas which had belonged to the consolidated Wardell Estate. From the time of Dr Wardell’s death, smaller units developed. The soil was suitable for agriculture, gardening and grazing and came to be used by proprietors serving the Sydney market.” Dr Robert Wardell was killed (presumed by local aboriginals, but there are other possibilities…) down by the Cooks River. Wardell helped start The Australian newspaper. Wardell Road was named after him.
- Also, “In the 1850s, there was some subdivision. Chalder’s Marrick estate (60 acres) was auctioned in 1855. It became a simple village bounded by Illawarra Road, Chapel Street, Fitzroy St, and Sydenham Road. The last of these, originally Swamp Road, gave access from Parramatta Road and continued across the swampland to Unwin’s Bridge Road. The little centre of Marrickville (the name was adopted with the arrival of local government in 1861) was never substantial. It had shops, a school, a hotel and, in 1879, the Council Chamber. But the population remained small and the district semi-rural.”
- Much of that “village” is still there – the pub on the corner of Chapel Street, some shops, the chapel attached to the school and the site of one of the first council buildings, now demolished for the (approx 100 year old) Primary school building on the corner of Shepherd Street. That’s the school I attended in the 1960′s. Chalder donated much of this school land and Chalder Street was named for him. Chalder himself lived in St Peters.
- Other council chambers were on Addison Road, near the Post Office, and (perhaps later) next to the Marrick (or Henson Park) pub itself. When the school took over the site on Shepherd Street the council built on a new location in Illawarra Road. In 1922 the council moved to Petersham Road and that earlier site also became part of the school.
- The principal access roads to the Marrick village were Illawarra Road, a narrow track running south and Swamp (later called Sydenham) Road, running from the west to the south-east. A western track ran from Parramatta Road through Petersham and downhill to link up to Swamp Road, later becoming Petersham Road, and another (again from Parramatta Road) became Livingstone Road. To the south (on higher ground) was another track which became the present Marrickville Road. As now, it ran from current New Canterbury Road to the swampland at Sydenham. Crucially, it connected all the north/south tracks in an east/west fashion and came into its own when the trams were routed down Victoria Street (Road) and the Bankstown railway line came into being.
- Another Council document on the History of The Gumbramorra Swamp is worth a look, especially this extract: “early settlement of the upland areas naturally impinged on the swamp. Since much of the region was given over to grazing and timber-getting, the edges of the Swamp served a useful purpose to the inhabitants who worked the later Wardell estate. The existence of habitation on both sides of the Swamp encouraged some traffic across. By the 1840s, a track, and then a road, ran across the swamp to Unwin’s Bridge Road. This ‘Swamp Road’ is Sydenham Road“.
- And “in 1855 the 60 acre estate of Thomas E Chalder, called Marrick, was subdivided. It became the village named Marrickville (1861) and the centre of the municipality. The village remained small, with only the minimum of community services. It was bounded, generally, by Illawarra Road, Chapel St, Fitzroy St and Sydenham (Swamp) Road and was in the vicinity of the north-western section of the Swamp. The construction of the tramway along Victoria St, the principal north-south route on the western side of the Swamp, in 1881 promoted settlement in the district at a time of large-scale suburban expansion. At the same time, plans for the Illawarra Railway (opened 1884) concentrated on the eastern side of the swampland, adjacent to Unwin’s Bridge Road. The Swamp area was no longer a relatively isolated and neglected sector.”
- Sydenham railway station (on the Illawarra line) was originally Marrickville Station, renamed when today’s Marrickville station, closer to the intersection of Illawarra and Marrickville Roads, was established.
- Going further back, the Marrickville Council website reports that “the original residents of Marrickville were the Cadigal people, who lived in the area for more than 40,000 years. The Cadigal were a clan of the Darug people and spoke the coastal Eora language. Other clans of the area included the Wangal, the Kameygal and the Bediagal. They did not settle in the Marrickville area, but for thousands of years roamed through territory that stretched from Port Jackson to Botany Bay. Aboriginal artefacts found around Cooks River and Alexandra Canal area indicate at least 7,000 years of occupation.”
- I previously reported in this blog that when the Alexandra Canal was dug aboriginal remains were found, including evidence of Dugong predation (something unexpected this far south).
- Further, Marrickville’s “European settlement of the area commenced with the first land grant in 1789. By 1809 all land within the district had been granted. By the 1830′s Marrickville had been consolidated into five great estates. The area was not heavily populated. Only several hundred people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, including English, Scottish, Italian, German, Dutch and Chinese, lived here. With just a small proportion of the land having been cleared and cultivated, the principal occupations were rural – grain-growing, market gardens, timber cutting, dairy farms, pig and poultry farms.”
- I would add that Charles Street was almost certainly in a dairy area. The Dairy Farmers Coop was also sited not far away on Addison Road.
- “In 1861 the Municipality of Marrickville was proclaimed. It was soon followed by Newtown (1862), then St Peters (1871) and Petersham (1872). Camperdown was proclaimed in 1861 but did not function until 1868. From the 1880s to the 1920s Marrickville grew from a sparsely settle rural area to a densely populated industrial region. By 1948 the combined population of the original municipalities peaked at over 113,000 people. The 1996 Census indicates that this has decreased to 76,000.”
- “Following the introduction of the Local Government (Areas) Act of 1948, there was an amalgamation of Marrickville, Petersham and St Peters Municipal Councils. They became the enlarged Marrickville Municipal Council on 1 January, 1949. Camperdown Municipal had been amalgamated into the City of Sydney in 1908 and Newtown followed in 1948. In 1968 there was a readjustment of local government boundaries and parts of Camperdown and Newtown were added to the Marrickville local government area (LGA) to form the present Council area.” All of these quotes are from the Council website.
- From which you may also peruse the History of Marrickville Suburbs.
- There’s an interesting and detailed chronology there as well, from which I have gleaned what really interested me:
- “1700 – Lieutenant James Cook at Botany Bay; his probable examination of the Cooks River entrance. 1788 – First Fleet at Botany Bay and Port Jackson. Settlement at Sydney Cove and first exploration of surrounding area. 1789 – Captain Hunter and Lieutenant Bradley, on separate expeditions, explore Cooks River.”
- “1793 – Land grants available to officers and officials. Grants to Johnston (Annandale), Rowley (Kingston) and White (Hammond Hill). Timber yard at Petersham. 1794 – Numerous grants to officers, soldiers and emancipists in order to form a “chain of farms” along Parramatta Road. 1797 – Major repairs to Parramatta Road (first formed 1790-2). 1799 – Beginning of consolidation into large land holdings: main beneficiaries were Moore, Smyth and Johnson. 1803 – Rowley consolidates Kingston Farm”, now known as Newtown and Camperdown.
- “1805 – Bridges erected on Parramatta Road. 1806 -Camperdown grant to Governor-elect Bligh. 1808 – Rum Rebellion. Campbell acquires Smyth’s property. 1809 – Last free grants in Marrickville region. 1810 – First road to Cooks River.” I presume that’s Cooks River Road, now King Street or the Princes Highway, but Unwin’s Bridge Road parallels it.
- “1810 – Toll bars on Parramatta Road. 1813- Crossing of Blue Mountains. 1815 – End of Napoleonic War. Beginning of large-scale transportation of convicts to New South Wales. Road over Blue Mountains. 1817 – Rough paving of portions of Parramatta. 1821 – First stage coach service to Parramatta. 1826 – W.C. Wentworth begins land purchase at Petersham.” Wentworth was both a prominent citizen and a partner with Dr Robert Wardell.
- “1827 – Racecourse on Camperdown estate (O’Connell).” Makes sense, but exactly where? the current Camperdown oval, given the proximity of Derby Street? (Wikipedia says the hospital site was on Missenden Road instead.)
- “1830 – Robert Wardell purchases Thomas Moore’s land and amasses a 2000 acre property based on Petersham House and Sara Dell. 1831 – Abolition of free land grants and beginning of a policy of minimum upset price. Campbell subdivides Smyth’s farm. 1832 – New Town Store (John Webster) opened”. Leading to the naming of Newtown itself.
- “1833 – Punt on Cooks River.” I assume (again) that this was on Cooks River Road, but perhaps closer to the end of Unwin’s Bridge Road than the current road alignment.
- “1834 – Murder of Robert Wardell. This initiates the process of breaking up his large estate. 1835 – Subdivision of Wardell estate begins.”
- “1835 – Second road to Cooks River with punt crossing.” Now I presume (again) that this is Unwin’s Bridge Road…. there are probable remnants at the river of old crossings and the later dam at Tempe, mixed in with later works to divert the Cooks River and to build the railway but it’s unclear to my inexpert eyes what’s what.
- “1835 – Temporary Anglican church at later St Peters. Enmore House (John Verge) built for Captain Browne. 1836 – Unwin’s Bridge across Cooks River. Completion of A.B. Spark’s Tempe House. 1838 – Foundation stone of St Peters Anglican church. Beginning of construction of Cooks River dam. 1839 – Consecration of St Peters church.”
- “1840 – Completion of Cooks River dam. Opening of St Peters cemetery. St Peters village laid out. Beginning of land sales for workingmen at Tempe. 1841 – Subdivision of Enmore Estate. 1842 – Tempe village laid out. Petersham rececourse” (sic – I guess they meant “racecourse”, but where? Petersham Oval?).
- “1843 – Homlewood built. 1844 – Foundation stone of first St Stephen’s church (Anglican), Newtown. Economic depression producing many forced sales and bankruptcies. 1847 – Stanmore House begun. 1848 – Inauguration of National education system. Subdivision of Petersham estate. Reiby house probably erected by this time. Foundation stone of St Thomas’ Catholic church, Lewisham. Temporary building for St Peters Anglican school.(permanent building in 1855). Goodsell family brickworks. Fowler’s Pottery.
- “1849 – Sydney Railway Company incorporated. Camperdown cemetery.” To which I’d add that Fort Street Model School was started at the Rocks in Sydney in that year. Later, in 1916, the Boys’ High School was split from the ‘model school’ at Observatory Hill and re-established on Parramatta Road, Petersham. The Girls’ High School remained at the Rocks until reunification began in 1974. Trust me, I was there!
- “1850 – First Methodist church at Newtown. Beginning of railway construction. 1851 – Gold Rush begins. J. G. Church builds The Grove. 1853 – Cast iron overbridge at King street, Newtown. 1854 – Large-scale subdivisions at Petersham (Sydenham village) and North Kingston. Petersham village laid out. 1855 – Chalder’s Marrickville estate laid out.” That’s the village described earlier in this post.
- “1855 – Railway to Parramatta Junction opened. Station at Newtown. ” That was at Station Street, to the west of the current location. 1856 -Sydenham House, Petersham, built. 1857 – Station at Petersham”. Those original platforms remain intact, unused, on what is now the express lines on the northern side of the railway, with new tracks and platforms on a new alignment added later.
- “1858 – Municipalities Act. Newington Inn opened. Thomas Holt purchasing land to form The Warren estate. 1859 – First municipalities (Randwick, Shoalhaven) incorporated. 1861 – Municipality of Marrickville (1920 acres) incorporated. 1862 – Municipalities of Camperdown (435 acres) and Newtown (442 acres) incorporated. Bellevue House erected. 1863 – Cook’s brickworks at Newtown (later Marrickville, then Tempe); Koll’s tannery (now Metro site); Schwebel’s quarry“. I can only presume that Schwebel gave his name to a street in Marrickville…
- “1864 – Holt’s The Warren substantially completed. Marrickville National school began (new buildings, 1865). 1865 – Marrickville post office in temporary premises.” Possibly Addison Road, or perhaps in Chapel Street. 1868 – First street lamp in Newtown. Municipalities Act. 1869 – St Peters cemetery closed (Petersham cemetery opened 1863). Temporary Marrickville Council premises in Chapel Street.” I’m unsure if this was the site next to the Marrick Hotel or further down Chapel Street, on the corner with Shepherd Street.
- “1871 – Census statistics of existing municipalities: Newtown, 4328; Marrickville, 1464; Camperdown, 638; Petersham, 750. Incorporation of St Peters Municipality. Incorporation of Petersham Municipality. Roseby Congregational Church opened. Gladstone Hall, Dulwich Hill, built. Porter’s brickworks, Wardell Road. 1872- The Lodge, Stanmore, built. 1873 – Gentle’s brickworks, Newtown. 1874 – Alcock and Davenport’s boot factory (had taken over Koll’s tannery). Tempe Public school. 1876 – Main Roads Act (ending the Trust for Cooks River Road). 1878 – Marrickville Town Hall, Illawarra Road built (opened 1879). St Peters Town Hall (demolished 1927). Petersham Congregational church.”
- “1879 – New Undercliff bridge over Cooks River. Newtown Railway bridge widened. Marrickville Town Hall” opened, I presume.
- “1880 – Tramways Extension Act. Work on Nepean Water Scheme, with reservoir at Petersham. Cranbrook (Fowler) built. Newington College moved to Stanmore. 1881- Steam tram from Newtown to Marrickville. Newtown tram depot. Newington College opened.” The tram ran down Enmore Road to Victoria Road, skirting the swamp and running up the gentle slope to what became Seymour’s corner, turning right onto Marrickville Road. A later steam service ran along Stanmore Road.
- “1881 – Census showed Marrickville, 3501; Petersham, 3413; St Peters, 2272; Newtown 8327; Camperdown 1175. Fowler’s Cranbrook completed. 1882 – Newtown toll gate closed. Dixson acquires Abergeldie estate and begins to build on it. Auction of Terry’s Marionette estate; “Tempe Park” sub-division. Petersham Town Hall. 1883 – Enmore estate subdivision; Enmore House demolished. Stanmore Public school. 1884 – Illawarra Railway opened (to Wollongong, 1888). Petersham Public school. Petersham cemetery closed. South Annandale subdivision. Subdivision of The Warren. 1886 – Carmellite nuns occupy The Warren and grounds. New Stanmore station. Rebuilding of Petersham station. Whipple truss railway bridge over Long Creek completed. Lewisham Railway station. Standsure Brick company begun. 1887 – Petersham reservoir completed; Nepean water scheme in operation. Frogmore Estate subdivision. Camperdown Town Hall.”
- 1888 – Celebration of Centenary of foundation of New South Wales. Newtown telephone exchange. 1889 – Great Marrickville flood. Lewisham Hospital (for children). Unwin’s Bridge rebuilt. Tramway to Dulwich Hill. 1891 – Census showed Marrickville, 13507; Petersham, 10369; St Peters 4860; Newtown 17870; Camperdown, 6658. Beginning of western Sewerage scheme. Tramway to St Peters. Severe economic depression in South-Eastern Australia.”
- “1892 – Present Newtown railway station. 1893 – Vicars’ Woollen Mills. Banking crisis in Victoria has repercussions in New South Wales. Depth of economic depression. 1894 – Beginning of construction of Alexandra Canal (to 1896). 1895 – Railway to Belmore opened (to Bankstown, 1909). 1896 – Crago flour mill erected. Completion of Alexandra Canal. 1897 – Marrickville Cottage Hospital. Marrickville district pumping station. Enmore School opened. Petersham Post Office opened. 1899 - Cooks River Bridge at Wardell Road completed. 1900- Seymour’s Store opened.” That’s the “Seymour’s Corner” I mentioned earlier, basically a large hardware store on the curved tram alignment, corner Marrickville and Victoria Roads.
- “1899 – Tempe Tram Depot. 1901 – Federation achieved. Census shows Marrickville 18775; Petersham, 15307; St Peters’, 5906; Newtown, 22598; Camperdown, 7931. Tempe Park Wesleyan Methodist church (now Coptic) 1902 – Further Reiby House subdivision and alterations to house. 1903 – Sydney (formerly Jubilee) Brickworks on Silverleigh site. Peacock Jam at Stanmore. 1905 – Demolition of Annandale House. 1906 – Local Government Act. 1908 – Camperdown municipality merged with Sydney. Marrickville Margarine factory opened. Development of Grove estate. Australian Woollen Mill established (merged with Vicars, 1965). Newtown Rugby League Football Club begun. 1909 – Salvation Army at Ballevue” (sic – perhaps that should be “Bellevue”?).
- “1910 – Final sale of Marionette estate. Sts Peter and Paul’s Catholic church built on site. William Thornley engineering opened. Sydney Steel founded. 1911 – Census shows Marrickville, 30653; Petersham, 21712; St Peters, 8410; Newtown, 26498. 1912 – Electrification of street lighting beginning.”
- Of special interest to me (because of family connections) is “1913 – Addison Road Army barracks” opened. My grandfather (with the Light Horsemen) stabled his horse here at some point after the First World War. Presumably the land here was boggy and undeveloped, or was used for dairy cattle up until this point. Charles Street (where we started, remember?) backs onto the camp, now a community centre.
- “1914 – World War One. 1915 Malco Industries (Malleable Castings) founded.” On Victoria Road, near Chapel Street.
- “1915 – Illawarra Railway duplicated. Electric lighting along Parramatta Road. 1916 – Fort Street Boys’ High School to Petersham. 1918 – End of World War One. 1919 – Spanish Influenza epidemic. Local Government Act. Marrickville Winged Victory statue. Resumption of The Warren by Housing Department. Planned subdivision for returned servicemen.”
That’s enough for now – part 2 shortly!
Where will I start? This is a bit of a brain dump folks…. I should say I grew up in Marrickville, hence the immediate interest…
- In fact I grew up in Charles Street, so this web reference to Stuart Alchin Laing, “born at Marrickville in May 1896″ is interesting. Stuart left a will dated 23rd August 1917 stating in part that “I devise and bequeath all my real estate unto my mother Charlotte Laing wife of Charles (sic) Laing of “Tara” Charles Street Marrickville Sydney in the State of NSW. ”
- Do I know which house was the aforementioned “Tara”? No, but I’ll keep looking…
- Interesting that the Princes Highway was, in part, called Cooks River Road, extending as you’d expect from Parramatta Road to Cooks River. Before that it was known as Bulanaming Road (until the 1820s) and perhaps also as Newtown Road (once New Town store lent its name to the district, anyway.
- The section of Cooks River Road between Bligh Street and St. Peters Station was renamed as King Street in October 1877.
- A local government document on Marrickville village history may be found here. Especially interesting to me is that “Marrickville Road’s length formed a portion of the extensive farms and grazing areas which had belonged to the consolidated Wardell Estate. From the time of Dr Wardell’s death, smaller units developed. The soil was suitable for agriculture, gardening and grazing and came to be used by proprietors serving the Sydney market.” Dr Robert Wardell was killed (presumed by local aboriginals, but there are other possibilities…) down by the Cooks River. Wardell helped start The Australian newspaper. Wardell Road was named after him.
- Also, “In the 1850s, there was some subdivision. Chalder’s Marrick estate (60 acres) was auctioned in 1855. It became a simple village bounded by Illawarra Road, Chapel Street, Fitzroy St, and Sydenham Road. The last of these, originally Swamp Road, gave access from Parramatta Road and continued across the swampland to Unwin’s Bridge Road. The little centre of Marrickville (the name was adopted with the arrival of local government in 1861) was never substantial. It had shops, a school, a hotel and, in 1879, the Council Chamber. But the population remained small and the district semi-rural.”
- Much of that “village” is still there – the pub on the corner of Chapel Street, some shops, the chapel attached to the school and the site of one of the first council buildings, now demolished for the (approx 100 year old) Primary school building on the corner of Shepherd Street. That’s the school I attended in the 1960′s. Chalder donated much of this school land and Chalder Street was named for him. Chalder himself lived in St Peters.
- Other council chambers were on Addison Road, near the Post Office, and (perhaps later) next to the Marrick (or Henson Park) pub itself. When the school took over the site on Shepherd Street the council built on a new location in Illawarra Road. In 1922 the council moved to Petersham Road and that earlier site also became part of the school.
- The principal access roads to the Marrick village were Illawarra Road, a narrow track running south and Swamp (later called Sydenham) Road, running from the west to the south-east. A western track ran from Parramatta Road through Petersham and downhill to link up to Swamp Road, later becoming Petersham Road, and another (again from Parramatta Road) became Livingstone Road. To the south (on higher ground) was another track which became the present Marrickville Road. As now, it ran from current New Canterbury Road to the swampland at Sydenham. Crucially, it connected all the north/south tracks in an east/west fashion and came into its own when the trams were routed down Victoria Street (Road) and the Bankstown railway line came into being.
- Another Council document on the History of The Gumbramorra Swamp is worth a look, especially this extract: “early settlement of the upland areas naturally impinged on the swamp. Since much of the region was given over to grazing and timber-getting, the edges of the Swamp served a useful purpose to the inhabitants who worked the later Wardell estate. The existence of habitation on both sides of the Swamp encouraged some traffic across. By the 1840s, a track, and then a road, ran across the swamp to Unwin’s Bridge Road. This ‘Swamp Road’ is Sydenham Road“.
- And “in 1855 the 60 acre estate of Thomas E Chalder, called Marrick, was subdivided. It became the village named Marrickville (1861) and the centre of the municipality. The village remained small, with only the minimum of community services. It was bounded, generally, by Illawarra Road, Chapel St, Fitzroy St and Sydenham (Swamp) Road and was in the vicinity of the north-western section of the Swamp. The construction of the tramway along Victoria St, the principal north-south route on the western side of the Swamp, in 1881 promoted settlement in the district at a time of large-scale suburban expansion. At the same time, plans for the Illawarra Railway (opened 1884) concentrated on the eastern side of the swampland, adjacent to Unwin’s Bridge Road. The Swamp area was no longer a relatively isolated and neglected sector.”
- Sydenham railway station (on the Illawarra line) was originally Marrickville Station, renamed when today’s Marrickville station, closer to the intersection of Illawarra and Marrickville Roads, was established.
- Going further back, the Marrickville Council website reports that “the original residents of Marrickville were the Cadigal people, who lived in the area for more than 40,000 years. The Cadigal were a clan of the Darug people and spoke the coastal Eora language. Other clans of the area included the Wangal, the Kameygal and the Bediagal. They did not settle in the Marrickville area, but for thousands of years roamed through territory that stretched from Port Jackson to Botany Bay. Aboriginal artefacts found around Cooks River and Alexandra Canal area indicate at least 7,000 years of occupation.”
- I previously reported in this blog that when the Alexandra Canal was dug aboriginal remains were found, including evidence of Dugong predation (something unexpected this far south).
- Further, Marrickville’s “European settlement of the area commenced with the first land grant in 1789. By 1809 all land within the district had been granted. By the 1830′s Marrickville had been consolidated into five great estates. The area was not heavily populated. Only several hundred people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, including English, Scottish, Italian, German, Dutch and Chinese, lived here. With just a small proportion of the land having been cleared and cultivated, the principal occupations were rural – grain-growing, market gardens, timber cutting, dairy farms, pig and poultry farms.”
- I would add that Charles Street was almost certainly in a dairy area. The Dairy Farmers Coop was also sited not far away on Addison Road.
- “In 1861 the Municipality of Marrickville was proclaimed. It was soon followed by Newtown (1862), then St Peters (1871) and Petersham (1872). Camperdown was proclaimed in 1861 but did not function until 1868. From the 1880s to the 1920s Marrickville grew from a sparsely settle rural area to a densely populated industrial region. By 1948 the combined population of the original municipalities peaked at over 113,000 people. The 1996 Census indicates that this has decreased to 76,000.”
- “Following the introduction of the Local Government (Areas) Act of 1948, there was an amalgamation of Marrickville, Petersham and St Peters Municipal Councils. They became the enlarged Marrickville Municipal Council on 1 January, 1949. Camperdown Municipal had been amalgamated into the City of Sydney in 1908 and Newtown followed in 1948. In 1968 there was a readjustment of local government boundaries and parts of Camperdown and Newtown were added to the Marrickville local government area (LGA) to form the present Council area.” All of these quotes are from the Council website.
- From which you may also peruse the History of Marrickville Suburbs.
- There’s an interesting and detailed chronology there as well, from which I have gleaned what really interested me:
- “1700 – Lieutenant James Cook at Botany Bay; his probable examination of the Cooks River entrance. 1788 – First Fleet at Botany Bay and Port Jackson. Settlement at Sydney Cove and first exploration of surrounding area. 1789 – Captain Hunter and Lieutenant Bradley, on separate expeditions, explore Cooks River.”
- “1793 – Land grants available to officers and officials. Grants to Johnston (Annandale), Rowley (Kingston) and White (Hammond Hill). Timber yard at Petersham. 1794 – Numerous grants to officers, soldiers and emancipists in order to form a “chain of farms” along Parramatta Road. 1797 – Major repairs to Parramatta Road (first formed 1790-2). 1799 – Beginning of consolidation into large land holdings: main beneficiaries were Moore, Smyth and Johnson. 1803 – Rowley consolidates Kingston Farm”, now known as Newtown and Camperdown.
- “1805 – Bridges erected on Parramatta Road. 1806 -Camperdown grant to Governor-elect Bligh. 1808 – Rum Rebellion. Campbell acquires Smyth’s property. 1809 – Last free grants in Marrickville region. 1810 – First road to Cooks River.” I presume that’s Cooks River Road, now King Street or the Princes Highway, but Unwin’s Bridge Road parallels it.
- “1810 – Toll bars on Parramatta Road. 1813- Crossing of Blue Mountains. 1815 – End of Napoleonic War. Beginning of large-scale transportation of convicts to New South Wales. Road over Blue Mountains. 1817 – Rough paving of portions of Parramatta. 1821 – First stage coach service to Parramatta. 1826 – W.C. Wentworth begins land purchase at Petersham.” Wentworth was both a prominent citizen and a partner with Dr Robert Wardell.
- “1827 – Racecourse on Camperdown estate (O’Connell).” Makes sense, but exactly where? the current Camperdown oval, given the proximity of Derby Street? (Wikipedia says the hospital site was on Missenden Road instead.)
- “1830 – Robert Wardell purchases Thomas Moore’s land and amasses a 2000 acre property based on Petersham House and Sara Dell. 1831 – Abolition of free land grants and beginning of a policy of minimum upset price. Campbell subdivides Smyth’s farm. 1832 – New Town Store (John Webster) opened”. Leading to the naming of Newtown itself.
- “1833 – Punt on Cooks River.” I assume (again) that this was on Cooks River Road, but perhaps closer to the end of Unwin’s Bridge Road than the current road alignment.
- “1834 – Murder of Robert Wardell. This initiates the process of breaking up his large estate. 1835 – Subdivision of Wardell estate begins.”
- “1835 – Second road to Cooks River with punt crossing.” Now I presume (again) that this is Unwin’s Bridge Road…. there are probable remnants at the river of old crossings and the later dam at Tempe, mixed in with later works to divert the Cooks River and to build the railway but it’s unclear to my inexpert eyes what’s what.
- “1835 – Temporary Anglican church at later St Peters. Enmore House (John Verge) built for Captain Browne. 1836 – Unwin’s Bridge across Cooks River. Completion of A.B. Spark’s Tempe House. 1838 – Foundation stone of St Peters Anglican church. Beginning of construction of Cooks River dam. 1839 – Consecration of St Peters church.”
- “1840 – Completion of Cooks River dam. Opening of St Peters cemetery. St Peters village laid out. Beginning of land sales for workingmen at Tempe. 1841 – Subdivision of Enmore Estate. 1842 – Tempe village laid out. Petersham rececourse” (sic – I guess they meant “racecourse”, but where? Petersham Oval?).
- “1843 – Homlewood built. 1844 – Foundation stone of first St Stephen’s church (Anglican), Newtown. Economic depression producing many forced sales and bankruptcies. 1847 – Stanmore House begun. 1848 – Inauguration of National education system. Subdivision of Petersham estate. Reiby house probably erected by this time. Foundation stone of St Thomas’ Catholic church, Lewisham. Temporary building for St Peters Anglican school.(permanent building in 1855). Goodsell family brickworks. Fowler’s Pottery.
- “1849 – Sydney Railway Company incorporated. Camperdown cemetery.” To which I’d add that Fort Street Model School was started at the Rocks in Sydney in that year. Later, in 1916, the Boys’ High School was split from the ‘model school’ at Observatory Hill and re-established on Parramatta Road, Petersham. The Girls’ High School remained at the Rocks until reunification began in 1974. Trust me, I was there!
- “1850 – First Methodist church at Newtown. Beginning of railway construction. 1851 – Gold Rush begins. J. G. Church builds The Grove. 1853 – Cast iron overbridge at King street, Newtown. 1854 – Large-scale subdivisions at Petersham (Sydenham village) and North Kingston. Petersham village laid out. 1855 – Chalder’s Marrickville estate laid out.” That’s the village described earlier in this post.
- “1855 – Railway to Parramatta Junction opened. Station at Newtown. ” That was at Station Street, to the west of the current location. 1856 -Sydenham House, Petersham, built. 1857 – Station at Petersham”. Those original platforms remain intact, unused, on what is now the express lines on the northern side of the railway, with new tracks and platforms on a new alignment added later.
- “1858 – Municipalities Act. Newington Inn opened. Thomas Holt purchasing land to form The Warren estate. 1859 – First municipalities (Randwick, Shoalhaven) incorporated. 1861 – Municipality of Marrickville (1920 acres) incorporated. 1862 – Municipalities of Camperdown (435 acres) and Newtown (442 acres) incorporated. Bellevue House erected. 1863 – Cook’s brickworks at Newtown (later Marrickville, then Tempe); Koll’s tannery (now Metro site); Schwebel’s quarry“. I can only presume that Schwebel gave his name to a street in Marrickville…
- “1864 – Holt’s The Warren substantially completed. Marrickville National school began (new buildings, 1865). 1865 – Marrickville post office in temporary premises.” Possibly Addison Road, or perhaps in Chapel Street. 1868 – First street lamp in Newtown. Municipalities Act. 1869 – St Peters cemetery closed (Petersham cemetery opened 1863). Temporary Marrickville Council premises in Chapel Street.” I’m unsure if this was the site next to the Marrick Hotel or further down Chapel Street, on the corner with Shepherd Street.
- “1871 – Census statistics of existing municipalities: Newtown, 4328; Marrickville, 1464; Camperdown, 638; Petersham, 750. Incorporation of St Peters Municipality. Incorporation of Petersham Municipality. Roseby Congregational Church opened. Gladstone Hall, Dulwich Hill, built. Porter’s brickworks, Wardell Road. 1872- The Lodge, Stanmore, built. 1873 – Gentle’s brickworks, Newtown. 1874 – Alcock and Davenport’s boot factory (had taken over Koll’s tannery). Tempe Public school. 1876 – Main Roads Act (ending the Trust for Cooks River Road). 1878 – Marrickville Town Hall, Illawarra Road built (opened 1879). St Peters Town Hall (demolished 1927). Petersham Congregational church.”
- “1879 – New Undercliff bridge over Cooks River. Newtown Railway bridge widened. Marrickville Town Hall” opened, I presume.
- “1880 – Tramways Extension Act. Work on Nepean Water Scheme, with reservoir at Petersham. Cranbrook (Fowler) built. Newington College moved to Stanmore. 1881- Steam tram from Newtown to Marrickville. Newtown tram depot. Newington College opened.” The tram ran down Enmore Road to Victoria Road, skirting the swamp and running up the gentle slope to what became Seymour’s corner, turning right onto Marrickville Road. A later steam service ran along Stanmore Road.
- “1881 – Census showed Marrickville, 3501; Petersham, 3413; St Peters, 2272; Newtown 8327; Camperdown 1175. Fowler’s Cranbrook completed. 1882 – Newtown toll gate closed. Dixson acquires Abergeldie estate and begins to build on it. Auction of Terry’s Marionette estate; “Tempe Park” sub-division. Petersham Town Hall. 1883 – Enmore estate subdivision; Enmore House demolished. Stanmore Public school. 1884 – Illawarra Railway opened (to Wollongong, 1888). Petersham Public school. Petersham cemetery closed. South Annandale subdivision. Subdivision of The Warren. 1886 – Carmellite nuns occupy The Warren and grounds. New Stanmore station. Rebuilding of Petersham station. Whipple truss railway bridge over Long Creek completed. Lewisham Railway station. Standsure Brick company begun. 1887 – Petersham reservoir completed; Nepean water scheme in operation. Frogmore Estate subdivision. Camperdown Town Hall.”
- 1888 – Celebration of Centenary of foundation of New South Wales. Newtown telephone exchange. 1889 – Great Marrickville flood. Lewisham Hospital (for children). Unwin’s Bridge rebuilt. Tramway to Dulwich Hill. 1891 – Census showed Marrickville, 13507; Petersham, 10369; St Peters 4860; Newtown 17870; Camperdown, 6658. Beginning of western Sewerage scheme. Tramway to St Peters. Severe economic depression in South-Eastern Australia.”
- “1892 – Present Newtown railway station. 1893 – Vicars’ Woollen Mills. Banking crisis in Victoria has repercussions in New South Wales. Depth of economic depression. 1894 – Beginning of construction of Alexandra Canal (to 1896). 1895 – Railway to Belmore opened (to Bankstown, 1909). 1896 – Crago flour mill erected. Completion of Alexandra Canal. 1897 – Marrickville Cottage Hospital. Marrickville district pumping station. Enmore School opened. Petersham Post Office opened. 1899 - Cooks River Bridge at Wardell Road completed. 1900- Seymour’s Store opened.” That’s the “Seymour’s Corner” I mentioned earlier, basically a large hardware store on the curved tram alignment, corner Marrickville and Victoria Roads.
- “1899 – Tempe Tram Depot. 1901 – Federation achieved. Census shows Marrickville 18775; Petersham, 15307; St Peters’, 5906; Newtown, 22598; Camperdown, 7931. Tempe Park Wesleyan Methodist church (now Coptic) 1902 – Further Reiby House subdivision and alterations to house. 1903 – Sydney (formerly Jubilee) Brickworks on Silverleigh site. Peacock Jam at Stanmore. 1905 – Demolition of Annandale House. 1906 – Local Government Act. 1908 – Camperdown municipality merged with Sydney. Marrickville Margarine factory opened. Development of Grove estate. Australian Woollen Mill established (merged with Vicars, 1965). Newtown Rugby League Football Club begun. 1909 – Salvation Army at Ballevue” (sic – perhaps that should be “Bellevue”?).
- “1910 – Final sale of Marionette estate. Sts Peter and Paul’s Catholic church built on site. William Thornley engineering opened. Sydney Steel founded. 1911 – Census shows Marrickville, 30653; Petersham, 21712; St Peters, 8410; Newtown, 26498. 1912 – Electrification of street lighting beginning.”
- Of special interest to me (because of family connections) is “1913 – Addison Road Army barracks” opened. My grandfather (with the Light Horsemen) stabled his horse here at some point after the First World War. Presumably the land here was boggy and undeveloped, or was used for dairy cattle up until this point. Charles Street (where we started, remember?) backs onto the camp, now a community centre.
- “1914 – World War One. 1915 Malco Industries (Malleable Castings) founded.” On Victoria Road, near Chapel Street.
- “1915 – Illawarra Railway duplicated. Electric lighting along Parramatta Road. 1916 – Fort Street Boys’ High School to Petersham. 1918 – End of World War One. 1919 – Spanish Influenza epidemic. Local Government Act. Marrickville Winged Victory statue. Resumption of The Warren by Housing Department. Planned subdivision for returned servicemen.”
That’s enough for now – part 2 shortly!
Filed under NSW, railways by Rob.
Filed under NSW, railways by Rob.
This could be a very long post, or a very short one if I get bored of the task. But if history matters at all, and it may not, it’s worth looking at who did what to stall or enhance the NSW railways over the medium to longer term. We could then draw meaningless conclusions about what the encumbents or pretenders may or may not do…
And I should say right now that we have to look at context, too. Railway line closures have been going on for a very long time, just as Sydney’s (and Newcastle’s) extensive tram network grew and declined over decades (but it was Heffron for Labor who finally pulled the pin on Sydney’s real light rail system). You can’t blame Labor alone – in fact the Liberal Premiers have a slight lead in the ‘rail closures’ game overall – however you can accuse both major parties of an over-eager opportunism. Flood damage can be a great excuse to close a line, for example. But glib analysis ignores the elephant in the room: the motor lobby, and it’s venal, self-interested cohorts. If anyone – or any thing – is to blame, it’s the motor vehicle. Truck and car competition, fostered and lobbied by car makers, pro-car organisations and the oil companies, has been intense over the last 60 years or so. Money that could – perhaps should – have gone into improved public transport was used instead to subsidise road building. First it was sealed roads, then bigger roads, straighter roads, wider roads. Our appetite for roads seemingly knows no bounds.
And people – voters – actively chose to buy cars, house them in little boxes on their increasingly remotely-sited land and use them, “proving” that continued investment in rail was not in the short term interests of citizens or their elected representatives. You can blame the old media, too, for their glorification of subsidised personal car transport and self-interest in selling car-related adspace. Blame who you like, but we are all complicit in this crime.
So here goes… and E&OE, I’ll do the best I can but you will have to check it out for yourself to be certain!
First of all – and my personal favourite in so many ways – is the Parramatta to Castle Hill line (it began as a steam tram, but later there were platforms and a direct connection with the main western railway). It actually continued onto Rogans Hill (from Castle Hill). It was closed in 1932 due to poor patronage. Jack Lang pulled the plug on this one, for Labor. Imagine if we’d have kept and developed that line. But people just didn’t use it, so you can understand why it was closed.
Some lines were closed formally by an Act of Parliament. At least they are clear-cut examples. They include:
- Ballina closed 1948 - McGirr Labor. Due to landslides.
- Westby closed 1952 – McGirr Labor.
- Richmond to Kurrajong closed 1952 – Cahill Labor. Unprofitable, flood damage (you can see plenty of remains beside the main road if you look for it).
- Morpeth closed 1953 – Cahill Labor. Due to siltation of the Hunter and Morpeth’s decline.
- Kunama (Batlow) closed 1957 – Cahill Labor.
- Taralga closed 1957 – Cahill Labor.
- Camden closed 1963 – Heffron (hey, they named a park after him) Labor. Coal trade moved elsewhere. Imagine if we’d kept this one, too? Again, leftovers are visible for the keen-eyed.
- Dorrigo closed 1993 – Fahey Liberal, suspended for a long time previously but still under a Liberal leader. Unprofitable, washaways.
Some lines are just “disused”, even though they may or may not have rail and sleepers, stations, platforms and bridges in place. You see these all around NSW – just look out your window as you drive around country NSW and look for raised embankments, fences, bridges and culverts where you don’t expect to see ‘em. According to this recent – and somewhat emotive – SMH article there are 58 such disused lines.
I’m not sure what is counted amongst that 58, but here’s what I can find:
- Inverell branch (to Moree) – progressively closed ’87 (Unsworth, Labor) to ’94 (Fahey, Liberal)
- Burcher branch – closed (maybe) between ’72 (Askin, Liberal) to ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Corowa – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Kywong – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Rand branch – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Rankin Springs – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Tocumwal branch – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Tumbarumba – damaged by floods in 1974, not repaired (Askin, Liberal) and remainder closed in ’87 (Unsworth, Labour)
- Tumut – damaged by floods in 1984, not repaired (Wran, Labor) but already on its way out in ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Unanderra-Moss Vale – stations closed ’75, ’76 (Askin, Lewis, Willis, all Liberal) but line open
- Yass Branch – closed ’58 (Cahill, Labor)
- Brewarrina – closed after flooding in ’74 (Askin, Liberal)
- Coolah – progressively closed from ’75 (Lewis, Liberal) to last train in ’82 (Wran, Labor)
- Molong-Dubbo – progressively closed, much of it in ’74 (Askin, Liberal) and finally and completely by ’87 (Unsworth, Labor). I looked at this one in 2009, pretty well taken apart now
- Oberon – closed 1980 (Wran, Labor) but station closures earlier (Askin, Liberal)
There are more but circumstances (like mine closures) make it obvious that they would close anyway. Indeed if you take the emotion and politics out of it, many lines just lose their reason for being – for example if a mill or a mine closes. Or if trucks take away the business. You can’t blame Liberal or Labor for that, unless you see their weakness in the face of oil-fueled transport lobby groups, populous fuel tax policy and the like as their fault. Which of course it is. Every time we give in to the oil lobby and lower or limit the tax on petrol or diesel at the pump we are killing off the rail system. 10 years of Federal Liberal government under John Howard can certainly take some of the blame here with singularly populous politicking on fuel pricing, but Labor can be just as weak-kneed when it comes to the crunch. Let alone the Greens, unashamedly politicking on the issue.
We could, after all, simply keep all the infrastructure and use and maintain it at huge ongoing cost, or mothball it at a lesser cost. The hidden cost is what we can’t do with that locked-up capital. Or we can sell it off, raise more cash and redirect it into other public services. That’s the game in play that the media, the Liberals and the Greens are playing silly games over.
And then there’s the Eastern Suburbs line. Started under engineer Bradfield in 1926, it was stopped by Depression and World War. Originally planned to extend from Town Hall to Bondi Junction before heading south through Randwick and the University of NSW, most of it just got dropped. It was restarted in ’47 and abandoned in ’52 (both decisions by Labor). Restarted again in ’67 (Askin, Liberal) and reviewed and shortened in ’76 (Wran, Labor). And “completed”, if that’s the word, by Wran in ’79. Now if we had kept the trams (stopped in 1961, under Heffron for Labor) then the route-shortening may have made some sense. Now it just looks like bad planning. That’s hindsight for you, though. It’s worth noting that a spur was proposed to Bondi in 1999 but it was heavily lobbied against by the residents of Bondi, presumably because the utility of the rail system for them was undermined by the increased ease by which more people could travel from faraway parts of Sydney to visit Bondi Beach. That’s People Power at work.
Much of the info above was found at a couple of sites, well worth exploring at the links below.
Railway status references:
http://www.nswrail.net/trivia/formally_closed.php
http://www.nswrail.net/trivia/short_lived_sections.php
http://www.nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW:eastern_suburbs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Suburbs_railway_line,_Sydney
Also well worth a read: http://home.iprimus.com.au/bexleyboy/arhs/unofficial.htm
Premier and party reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premiers_of_New_South_Wales
This could be a very long post, or a very short one if I get bored of the task. But if history matters at all, and it may not, it’s worth looking at who did what to stall or enhance the NSW railways over the medium to longer term. We could then draw meaningless conclusions about what the encumbents or pretenders may or may not do…
And I should say right now that we have to look at context, too. Railway line closures have been going on for a very long time, just as Sydney’s (and Newcastle’s) extensive tram network grew and declined over decades (but it was Heffron for Labor who finally pulled the pin on Sydney’s real light rail system). You can’t blame Labor alone – in fact the Liberal Premiers have a slight lead in the ‘rail closures’ game overall – however you can accuse both major parties of an over-eager opportunism. Flood damage can be a great excuse to close a line, for example. But glib analysis ignores the elephant in the room: the motor lobby, and it’s venal, self-interested cohorts. If anyone – or any thing – is to blame, it’s the motor vehicle. Truck and car competition, fostered and lobbied by car makers, pro-car organisations and the oil companies, has been intense over the last 60 years or so. Money that could – perhaps should – have gone into improved public transport was used instead to subsidise road building. First it was sealed roads, then bigger roads, straighter roads, wider roads. Our appetite for roads seemingly knows no bounds.
And people – voters – actively chose to buy cars, house them in little boxes on their increasingly remotely-sited land and use them, “proving” that continued investment in rail was not in the short term interests of citizens or their elected representatives. You can blame the old media, too, for their glorification of subsidised personal car transport and self-interest in selling car-related adspace. Blame who you like, but we are all complicit in this crime.
So here goes… and E&OE, I’ll do the best I can but you will have to check it out for yourself to be certain!
First of all – and my personal favourite in so many ways – is the Parramatta to Castle Hill line (it began as a steam tram, but later there were platforms and a direct connection with the main western railway). It actually continued onto Rogans Hill (from Castle Hill). It was closed in 1932 due to poor patronage. Jack Lang pulled the plug on this one, for Labor. Imagine if we’d have kept and developed that line. But people just didn’t use it, so you can understand why it was closed.
Some lines were closed formally by an Act of Parliament. At least they are clear-cut examples. They include:
- Ballina closed 1948 - McGirr Labor. Due to landslides.
- Westby closed 1952 – McGirr Labor.
- Richmond to Kurrajong closed 1952 – Cahill Labor. Unprofitable, flood damage (you can see plenty of remains beside the main road if you look for it).
- Morpeth closed 1953 – Cahill Labor. Due to siltation of the Hunter and Morpeth’s decline.
- Kunama (Batlow) closed 1957 – Cahill Labor.
- Taralga closed 1957 – Cahill Labor.
- Camden closed 1963 – Heffron (hey, they named a park after him) Labor. Coal trade moved elsewhere. Imagine if we’d kept this one, too? Again, leftovers are visible for the keen-eyed.
- Dorrigo closed 1993 – Fahey Liberal, suspended for a long time previously but still under a Liberal leader. Unprofitable, washaways.
Some lines are just “disused”, even though they may or may not have rail and sleepers, stations, platforms and bridges in place. You see these all around NSW – just look out your window as you drive around country NSW and look for raised embankments, fences, bridges and culverts where you don’t expect to see ‘em. According to this recent – and somewhat emotive – SMH article there are 58 such disused lines.
I’m not sure what is counted amongst that 58, but here’s what I can find:
- Inverell branch (to Moree) – progressively closed ’87 (Unsworth, Labor) to ’94 (Fahey, Liberal)
- Burcher branch – closed (maybe) between ’72 (Askin, Liberal) to ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Corowa – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Kywong – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Rand branch – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Rankin Springs – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Tocumwal branch – closed ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Tumbarumba – damaged by floods in 1974, not repaired (Askin, Liberal) and remainder closed in ’87 (Unsworth, Labour)
- Tumut – damaged by floods in 1984, not repaired (Wran, Labor) but already on its way out in ’75 (Lewis, Liberal)
- Unanderra-Moss Vale – stations closed ’75, ’76 (Askin, Lewis, Willis, all Liberal) but line open
- Yass Branch – closed ’58 (Cahill, Labor)
- Brewarrina – closed after flooding in ’74 (Askin, Liberal)
- Coolah – progressively closed from ’75 (Lewis, Liberal) to last train in ’82 (Wran, Labor)
- Molong-Dubbo – progressively closed, much of it in ’74 (Askin, Liberal) and finally and completely by ’87 (Unsworth, Labor). I looked at this one in 2009, pretty well taken apart now
- Oberon – closed 1980 (Wran, Labor) but station closures earlier (Askin, Liberal)
There are more but circumstances (like mine closures) make it obvious that they would close anyway. Indeed if you take the emotion and politics out of it, many lines just lose their reason for being – for example if a mill or a mine closes. Or if trucks take away the business. You can’t blame Liberal or Labor for that, unless you see their weakness in the face of oil-fueled transport lobby groups, populous fuel tax policy and the like as their fault. Which of course it is. Every time we give in to the oil lobby and lower or limit the tax on petrol or diesel at the pump we are killing off the rail system. 10 years of Federal Liberal government under John Howard can certainly take some of the blame here with singularly populous politicking on fuel pricing, but Labor can be just as weak-kneed when it comes to the crunch. Let alone the Greens, unashamedly politicking on the issue.
We could, after all, simply keep all the infrastructure and use and maintain it at huge ongoing cost, or mothball it at a lesser cost. The hidden cost is what we can’t do with that locked-up capital. Or we can sell it off, raise more cash and redirect it into other public services. That’s the game in play that the media, the Liberals and the Greens are playing silly games over.
And then there’s the Eastern Suburbs line. Started under engineer Bradfield in 1926, it was stopped by Depression and World War. Originally planned to extend from Town Hall to Bondi Junction before heading south through Randwick and the University of NSW, most of it just got dropped. It was restarted in ’47 and abandoned in ’52 (both decisions by Labor). Restarted again in ’67 (Askin, Liberal) and reviewed and shortened in ’76 (Wran, Labor). And “completed”, if that’s the word, by Wran in ’79. Now if we had kept the trams (stopped in 1961, under Heffron for Labor) then the route-shortening may have made some sense. Now it just looks like bad planning. That’s hindsight for you, though. It’s worth noting that a spur was proposed to Bondi in 1999 but it was heavily lobbied against by the residents of Bondi, presumably because the utility of the rail system for them was undermined by the increased ease by which more people could travel from faraway parts of Sydney to visit Bondi Beach. That’s People Power at work.
Much of the info above was found at a couple of sites, well worth exploring at the links below.
Railway status references:
http://www.nswrail.net/trivia/formally_closed.php
http://www.nswrail.net/trivia/short_lived_sections.php
http://www.nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW:eastern_suburbs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Suburbs_railway_line,_Sydney
Also well worth a read: http://home.iprimus.com.au/bexleyboy/arhs/unofficial.htm
Premier and party reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premiers_of_New_South_Wales
I mentioned the Richmond line a moment ago. It’s still a lovely single track line for the most part with a country air about it. It ends abruptly, like it was cut short – as indeed it was. You can still see where the tracks once went on, crossed the road and went through the park. You can see remains of reserved track and old bridges alongside the main road.
Many years ago when I was much younger Richmond was steam operated – we are talking the late 60′s into the early 1970s, but now it is electrified.
Here are some more details and links related to closed lines in Sydney:
I mentioned the Richmond line a moment ago. It’s still a lovely single track line for the most part with a country air about it. It ends abruptly, like it was cut short – as indeed it was. You can still see where the tracks once went on, crossed the road and went through the park. You can see remains of reserved track and old bridges alongside the main road.
Many years ago when I was much younger Richmond was steam operated – we are talking the late 60′s into the early 1970s, but now it is electrified.
Here are some more details and links related to closed lines in Sydney:
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