Waking up in Geelong

Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is April 2011.

On the road to Ballarat

We start off on the Western Highway headed to Ballarat, where work was underway on the $200 million Anthony’s Cutting upgrade outside Melton.

The winding road over Djerriwarrh Creek was about to be bypassed.

As well as the steep drop down into Bacchus Marsh.

The reason for my visit – another brand new X’Trapolis suburban train was about to leave the Alstom factory at Ballarat.

So I followed it on the diesel locomotive-hauled delivery run to Melbourne.

Passing the abandoned bluestone station buildings of the Geelong-Ballarat railway.

And the V/Line coach that now links the two cities.

Today there are 210 X’Trapolis trains on the Melbourne network, the bulk of them delivered since 2009 to cope with surging patronage.

Another train I captured leaving Ballarat was 122 year old steam locomotive Y112.

It was headed from the home base of Ballarat for Geelong, where it hauled a weekend worth of special trips for happy passengers.

Level crossings and bridges

At Anglesea Road in Waurn Ponds, I found a new level crossing about to be opened.

But it was only a temporary one – constructed to permit the grade separation of the level crossing as part of Stage 4A of the Geelong Ring Road.

You can replace a level crossing with a bridge, but at Separation Street in North Geelong motorists still find a way to crash onto the tracks.

In 2010 $3.2 million was spent to replace the Melbourne-bound parapets with a concrete wall, with the Geelong-bound lanes similarly upgraded in 2020 at a cost of $4.2 million.

And finally, on nearby Thompson Road I found a level crossing with no trains.

Part of the mothballed Fyansford line, the line lay idle for twenty years following the closure of the cement works in 2001, until it was finally pulled up in December 2011.

Scenes that are gone

Ding ding on La Trobe Street, my usual hackspot for capturing trains headed out of Southern Cross Station, but this month the interesting bit is behind this W class tram – a clear view of the old The Age offices, and National Bank House at 500 Bourke Street.

And in the other direction, Docklands Stadium.

Today all you’ll see is a wall of apartment towers along Spencer Street, and the fire damaged Lacrosse building in the other.

I also headed out to the abandoned RAAF Williams base to capture passing trains.

In 2010 the location was named as the site of the $86 million ‘Point Cook’ station, which opened in 2013 as Williams Landing, along with the extension of Palmers Road into the namesake housing estate.

And you thought insurance is boring?

The clock on top of the Mercer Street silos in Geelong hasn’t worked for years, but the thing I noticed was the ‘We Are Geelong’ billboard.

Back in 2010 Newcastle-based for-profit health insurer NIB started sponsoring the Geelong Football Club, in an attempt to butter up locals pending their hostile takeover of Geelong-based mutual health fund GMHBA. The takeover was rejected, and NIB pissed off with their tail between their legs.

On the same insurance note, I also paid a visit to National Mutual Plaza on Collins Street.

Once the home of Melbourne’s first rooftop restaurant, National Mutual was demutualised in 1996 and sold to AXA, with Suncorp Insurance having taken over the building.

A year later part of the facade fell from the tower, narrowly missing people down below. In 2014 demolition of the building was approved despite a pending heritage listing, with the ‘pantscraper‘ now occupying the site.

Footnote

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

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