Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is September 2012.
New builds
We start off down at Williams Landing, where work was progressing on the new railway station.
It opened to passengers in April 2013.
Meanwhile over at North Melbourne they were busy digging up the tracks to the west, as part of the Regional Rail Link project.
The new tracks lacked platforms at North Melbourne, but allowed V/Line trains to skip past suburban services when the first stage opened in December 2013.
But elsewhere on the Regional Rail Link route, work at yet to start – the decrepit timber station building at Sunshine was still in use.
And V/Line trains from Ballarat had to wait at the junction for a path towards Melbourne.
The first stage of the new station opened in April 2014, followed by a dedicated track pair to the city in July 2014, with Geelong line trains using the complete route from June 2015.
A bit of a joke
A decade ago to travel with V/Line you had to line up to buy a ticket before you travelled – the Myki system had been rolled out for use on buses across regional Victoria, but was not yet valid for travel on V/Line trains – hence this home made ‘Do not buy a Myki from this machine if you are travelling to Melbourne’ sign I found at Geelong station.
It took until June 2013 for Myki to be finally rolled out to V/Line commuter services, which allowed paper tickets to be killed off in February 2014.
Meanwhile on arriving at Southern Cross Station, you needed to watch your step – the tactile paving was peeling away from the floor.
But after a spate of issues, the floor at Southern Cross Station no longer an issue – just broken lights above platforms 13 and 14, and broken down escalators.
Things that are gone
A decade ago the old Royal Children’s Hospital was being pulled down.
Demolished as compensation for the new hospital that took over Royal Park, the old hospital was gone by January 2013, with the expansion of Royal Park onto the site completed by December 2014.
I also made my way out to Brunswick, to photograph the last days of the route 509 bus that ran along Hope Street to Sydney Road.
The last service ran in September 2013 but community agitation saw the service restored in January 2016.
And finally, a random photograph from Brunswick was Alec’s Laundrette on Melville Road – who boasted of being “The largest laundrette in Australia”.
It seems being the biggest didn’t help them – the laundromat has since closed down.
And things that haven’t changed
The trams trundling through Royal Park haven’t changed.
Low-floor E class trams were deployed to route 58 between West Coburg and Toorak from December 2021, but plenty of high-floor trams still appear on the route.
Clueless motorists are still blocking intersections.
Despite a “Don’t Block the Box” campaign launched in 2021.
And the infestation of gambling advertising?
Already a plague a decade ago.
It’s still around, but now the subject of a parliamentary inquiry.
May it be banished to hell.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.
“May it be banished to hell.” Hallelujah brother.
I can’t believe we’ve had it pushed on us for 10 years now.
https://wongm.com/2012/10/melbourne-sports-gambling-advertising/
Laundrettes/Laundromats and dry cleaners seem to have a rough time in the pandemic, with demand for them dropping and some going out of business.
With laundrettes/laundromats there has probably been a long-term downward trend with lower washing machine and drier prices over recent decades and increased gentrification reducing numbers without washing machines.
When I travelled to NSW recently it was incredibly hard to find a laundromat. Yet where I am in the western suburbs of Melbourne there are a half-dozen laundromats near me, one of them recently opened, and many more recently renovated.