A different skyline

The skyline west end of the Melbourne CBD was much emptier.

Melbourne Star observation wheel still in pieces.

Nothing behind Southern Cross Station.

Or Docklands Stadium.

Worries of flammable cladding yet to come.

The asbestos filled Spencer Street Power Station was gone, with a display suite for the ‘Upper West Side’ development occupying the site.

The $550 million development was completed in 2016, with 2,207 apartments across four towers.

And over at Spotswood, VicTrack had started cleaning up a similarly contaminated railway yard.

The soil contaminated with arsenic, copper, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was entombed beneath a concrete slab, at what is now a rail freight depot for Sadleirs Transport.

The former Royal Dental Hospital had also been turned into a big hole.

The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre was built on the site, opening in 2016.

But the Royal Women’s Hospital was still there.

It lay empty for another decade, until recently demolished for a $425 million University of Melbourne expansion.

Transport

On 6 June 2010 the ribbon was cut on a brand new railway station – Coolaroo on the Craigieburn line, between Broadmeadows and Roxburgh Park.

With then-Premier John Brumby and Minister for Public Transport Martin Pakula in attendance.

Over at Southern Cross Station the platforms were covered in artificial grass.

As part of Dairy Farmers’ “City to Country” campaign for yoghurt.

2010 saw new trains finally arriving on the Melbourne rail network to address peak time crowding, but there was nowhere to park them at night.

So a $12 million stabling yard at Newport was under construction.

But even bigger money was also being spent on road projects – work was underway on the $371 million West Gate Bridge Strengthening project.

With a web of scaffolding erected beneath the bridge.

The work reinforced the bridge to carry five lanes in each direction, following the narrowing of traffic lanes from 3.5m to 3.1m wide, with a 0.5m shoulder.

And a holiday related footnote

I headed over to South Australia on holiday.

Where I found The Overland passing through Mount Lofty.

Making a trip down to Victor Harbor for the horse tramway.

And the SteamRanger tourist railway.

And going for a ride on their clapped out diesel suburban trains.

But the South Australian Government was busy spruiking their upcoming public transport investments.

Footnote

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

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Building everywhere

The new footbridge at Footscray station was finally finished.

But the ‘roof’ was anything but – perforated panels let water through every time it rained!

In 2013 the bridge was partially demolished to make room for Regional Rail Link.

The Olympic Doughnut stall hiding in the shadows fared better.

Construction worked around the van until it relocated to a brand new store in 2014, remaining in business until the retirement of owner Nick Tsiligiris in 2017.

At the corner of Royal Parade and Flemington Road in Parkville, demolition of the former Royal Dental Hospital commended.

Abandoned since 2003 when the hospital moved around the corner to Carlton.

The site is now occupied by the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

Construction of the 717 Bourke Street office tower in Docklands were underway, with a new footbridge over Wurundjeri Way connecting it to Southern Cross Station.

TV station GTV9 moved their Melbourne studio from Richmond to the completed building in 2011.

Scenes that are gone

The skyline of Southbank hit pause between the completion of Eureka Tower in 2006, and Prima Pearl in 2014.

But today the even taller Australia 108 dominates the scene.

Back in 2010 V/Line trains to Geelong used the Werribee line tracks.

Since 2015 they have travelled via the new Melbourne suburbs of Wyndham Vale and Tarneit, follow the completion of Regional Rail Link.

While trains to Bendigo shared the Sunbury line tracks as far as Sunshine, passing through the Anderson Road level crossing at Albion.

The level crossing having been replaced by a road under rail bridge in 2014.

Changing of the trains

Hitachi trains were still clunking their way around Melbourne, like this one arriving into the old West Footscray station.

But brand new X’Trapolis trains were entering service, ready to replace them.

Meanwhile the Siemens trains fleet couldn’t stay out of trouble – another spate of braking issues saw additional restrictions applied to the fleet.

The issue finally resolved in 2011 following the installation of sanding gear to the trains.

Melbourne was also in the middle of the change from Metcard to Myki, but the reliability of the new technology left something to be desired.

Metcard being finally switched off in December 2012.

Rail freight

QR National was running colourful freight trains into Melbourne with their fleet of diesel locomotives.

The company rebranded itself as Aurizon in 2012, and quit intermodal rail freight in 2017, to instead focus on coal haulage.

Meanwhile rival freight operator Pacific National was busy clearing their yards of life expired freight wagons.

Cutting them up to take advantage of high scrap metal prices.

And track maintenance

When Metro Trains Melbourne took over the operation of Melbourne’s rail network, they made some big promises – improved track maintenance being one of them.

They ordered some shiny new spoil containers to help in the task rebuilding Melbourne’s tracks.

Replacing rotten timber sleepers with sturdier concrete ones.

But given how run down the network was, it made little difference – Metro had ‘inherited a dog’.

Down at Flinders Street Station the wheels were turning slowly – it took six weeks to repair a storm damaged ceiling.

But progress at Southern Cross Station was even slower – the $5 million in repairs was yet to start.

The only upside – the ‘temporary’ CRT next train displays were finally being removed, years after the station had been ‘officially’ opened.

The joys of a public-private partnership!

Footnote

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

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The post Photos from ten years ago: April 2010 appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.