Waking up in Geelong

Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is July 2009.

Remember Connex and Metcards? Here we see the ticket gates at Glenferrie station.

Down at North Melbourne station the new concourse at the city end was almost complete. This massive steel deck was required to protect the gas mains underneath from the heavy crane used to remove the last bits of formwork.

Down the line at Footscray station, rail replacement buses were running, thanks to a damaged section of overhead wiring on the track towards Newport – all thanks to a scrote who threw a chair over the edge of the station footbridge.

Note the lack of low floor buses – you can blame Sita Buslines for that.

The footbridge in question was still the rickety timber and tin structure dating back to the 1900s.

But the bridge’s days were numbered.

With construction on the $14.7 million dollar replacement about to start.

Another upgrade was the introduction of ‘Parkiteer‘ bike cages around the network.

Launched in February 2008, initially $1 million in funding was allocated for the installation of up to 20 bike cages.

But $1 million is a drop in the ocean in the money spent on railway station car parks.

In 2009 the massive car park at Laverton station was undergoing yet another expansion – stretching halfway to Aircraft station.

By 2014 the car park was rated the ‘worst in Melbourne for finding a space‘, with local residents getting sick and tired of motorists from elsewhere clogging their suburb, but the 2018 State Election saw the promise of still more parking spaces made by the Andrews Government.

July 2009 also saw me take a wander around the back blocks of Docklands.

There were plenty of abandoned railway tracks running around the wharves – this is now the corner of Collins and Bourke Street.

While the other end was shed 21 – since demolished, erasing the last trace of Victoria Dock.

Closer to North Melbourne station was the former ‘Hump’ at Melbourne Yard.

Opened in 1968, the yard was used to sort freight wagons. Each wagon would be pushed to the top of the ‘hump’ and then released, being allowed to roll into a destination track.

The entire yard was controlled by a primitive computer, with remote controlled brakes and points ensuring that each wagon ended up on the correct train.

But by the time of my visit the yard was long closed – the last train passed over the top in 1987.

The bulk of the yard was demolished in 1997 to make way for the Docklands Stadium, but the ‘hump’ crest lasted until 2010, when it was demolished to make room for the new Regional Rail Link tracks.

I also swung past the Melbourne Steel Terminal, used to tranship freight for the BlueScope Steel plant on the Stony Point line at Hastings.

Located in the middle of the ‘E’ Gate urban renewal precinct, the freight terminal was closed in 2015 and cleared of tracks soon after.

But all of those plans have come to naught – the land has been handed over to Transurban for city access ramps connecting to the West Gate ‘Tunnel’.

And finally, we end down on the outskirts of Geelong, where the railway towards Warrnambool passed through anonymous empty paddocks.

But in 2013 this spot was chosen as the site of the new ‘Grovedale’ station, which opened to passengers as ‘Waurn Ponds’ on October 2014.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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