The lost tracks
A little while back one of my now regular readers asked me if I took requests. So, happy to please the readers I undertook to look into trains for Kelly. This week’s blog, part one of two, is about trains.
I lived in Kew, well Studley Park to be more accurate, for the best part of 18 years. When I didn’t make that drive to the City that took up to 45 minutes to go 5 kilometres I sometimes caught the (in)famous 109 tram. What always puzzled me was - why wasn’t there a train line to Kew? I had heard a number of rumours of there being a line once or one had been planned or something like that.
Well guess what? Once upon a time, there were actually two separate train lines in Kew!
First a little about trains in general. Construction commenced on the first railway in Australia in Sydney in 1850, but it took until 1855 before it finally reached Parramatta just 20 kilometres away. By this time the first railway opened in Melbourne and that was in 1854. This line, the Sandridge line, ran from City (Melbourne) to Sandridge (Port Melbourne.)
Back to Kew. The railway that I had heard rumours of and in fact had long suspected of having existed had a station in East Kew on Valerie Street, near the intersection of Harp Road and High Street was known as the “Outer Circle Railway.” The railway, as originally proposed was to travel from Oakleigh to North Melbourne in an arc that passed through Caulfield, Gardiner, Camberwell, Kew, Northcote, North Fitzroy, North Carlton and finally North Melbourne. Originally proposed in the 1870’s construction of the line did not commence until 1888. The construction of the line was supervised by John (later Sir) Monash. The line was completed in May 1891.
Given that it is no longer there it’s a pretty safe assumption that it was not a success.
“The Outer Circle Railway failed because it never served a real purpose. As we have seen, Gippsland goods trains never used it and it was unsuitable for through passenger traffic. The economic depression of the 1890’s retarded housing development along the line thus negating any hope of substantial local traffic. By the time the houses were built some 50 years later, more direct forms of transport were available. Electric trams connecting from the city extended to Riversdale and Deepdene in 1916 and to East Kew in 1915.” (Beardsell, 72)
The line had a number of stations. In travelling from the City to Oakleigh the train went through Camberwell, Riversdale, Hartwell, Norwood and Waverley stations. In travelling to Fairfield Park the train went from Melbourne through Camberwell, Riversdale, Shenley, Deepdene, East Kew, Willsmere, Fulham Grange, Fairfield Park, Northcote South, Clifton Hill and Collingwood stations.
There’s not a lot of the line left behind but there are some reminders. The map below shows a green arc where the line ran. Now known as the Anniversary Outer Circle Trail, most of this land is now council parks. If you look closely under the road on the corners of Harp Rd and High Street in East Kew you will see that there is still a bridge there. Personally I’d never noticed it but once I’d done some research I went and had a look. It’s certainly there. Anyway, it’s there because the train used to run across the river in Fairfield (Chandler Highway – second shortest highway in the world, by the way…) and up the hill to this junction passing under the road. The East Kew Station was indeed nearby here but actually on the west side of Normanby Road close to where I thought it was but not exactly.
The bridge across the river at Fairfield that now carries the aforementioned Chandler Highway is also a reminder as it was built for the railway and widened for cars years later, originally known as the Yarra River viaduct. The line was dismantled in sections over time, by the way of a series of Railway Dismantling Acts, the last piece by the Railway Dismantling Act 1944 No. 5010 and was completed in 1946.
If you’re interested in the Outer Circle I can recommend a few things for you to take a look at.
Beardsell, David. The Outer Circle: A History of the Oakleigh to Fairfield Park Railway. Australian Railway Historical Society (Victorian Division). 1979. Print.
(Available at the State Library of Victoria.)
And just to confuse matters there was a second line in Kew. This one was a spur line from Hawthorn Station. The line had only two stops, Barker and Kew. The Barker station was on Barkers Road where, until recently, the somewhat curiously named Hotel California stood, almost directly across the road from Xavier College. The second station, Kew, was on Denmark Street where Vic Roads’ head office now stands. The line was opened on 20 December 1887 and was shut down in 1952 for passengers and 1957 for freight.
On the following map you can see where part of the line ran from Chrystobel Cresent to Hawthorn Grove, paralleling Hilda Cresecent. It is now a park, Le Bray Park, with a bike path running through it. You can see from the curve that it ran next to Glenferrie Oval and then parallel with the line between Hawthorn and Glenferrie Stations, joining at Hawthorn Station. As a former resident of Kew this line kind of makes sense but is hardly the most direct route to the city. Given the line through Collingwood and Richmond it would probably have made more sense to go in that direction.
If you’re interested in this line, here’s some more reading for you.
And as usual the State Library of Victoria has some great photos, maps and plans. (This one might take a little while to load – please be patient, it's worth the wait.)
As I said at the start this is part one of the Railways. For the next installment we’ll head out to the country for two more lines. Both now long gone!
Until next time.
CG
Attached photos show original contracts and rail diagrams, courtesy of Public Records Office of Victoria, Morgans Street Directory and some base maps from the State of Victoria..
References:
VPRS 5751/0000/7 – Hawthorn & Kew line contract No. 2387.
VPRS 5751/0001/59
VPRS 17077/P0001/33
VPRS 17077/P0001/40
Morgans Street Directory 1938.