Waking up in Geelong

Another month, another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is December 2011.

Christmas in the CBD

Christmas decorations were everywhere.

Crowds aplenty to see the Myer Christmas Windows.

With the massive ‘Merry Christmas’ sign at Flinders Street Station finally finished!

And Yarra Trams even rolled out a Christmas themed variant of their “Beware the Rhino” campaign.

A big hole in the ground

Around the corner at thr former Myer Lonsdale Street store was massive hole in the ground.

Work continuing to clear the site for the new Emporium Melbourne shopping centre.

Which exposed the ‘S’ in the ‘MYERS’ name on the Lonsdale Street façade.

And the ‘secret’ tunnels that connected the Myer store to neighbouring buildings.

Flying into Melbourne

I returned from my trip to Adelaide (which is a story still to come).

Passing over Truganina.

Melbourne Airport’s terminals are still stuck in the 1970s.

But at least the Ansett Australia carpet was only 10 years out of date.

But one thing that has since since 2011 is the wall of yellow taxis.

The requirement for taxis to be painted yellow was dropped in 2013, and taxis themselves have been in decline since the 2012 launch of Uber in Australia.

Down the docks

I went for a squiz at the container ships down at Swanston Dock.

And the Bass Strait ro-ro ships at Webb Dock.

Both locations are no longer accessible to the public – covered by expanded terminals at the Port of Melbourne.

Williams Landing

I seem to keep on coming back to Williams Landing.

In December 2011 the southern end of the former RAAF runway was still there.

But work was underway to clear the site for the new Williams Landing railway station.

Abandoned hospitals

A decade ago Melbourne was full of abandoned hospitals.

The old Royal Women’s Hospital in Carlton was locked up.

Empty inside.

Replaced by the current hospital a short distance away on Grattan Street.

The old Royal Children’s Hospital was also closed.

Replaced by the new Royal Children’s Hospital next door.

And the only signs of life being a table surrounded by random chairs.

Ding ding

I photographed a Z3 tram headed along route 55 on Flemington Road.

Route 55 merged with route 8 to become route 58 in 2017, and low floor E class took over from high floor trams just a few weeks ago.

And finally – trains

At Southern Cross Station new shops were being added wherever they’d fit.

The ‘mX’ newspaper was still being handed out.

V/Line was still running 7-car trains on express services to Geelong.

Signs of the past

I headed past the Newport Workshops, and found a Hitachi train stabled in the sidings.

But when I revisited a few days later, they’d multiplied!

Down at Fyansford the old silos at the cement works were still in place, but the railway had been lifted.

Level crossings removed, and the road resurfaced.

While at North Geelong, I found the ancient ‘Train Staff’ safeworking system still in use by grain trains.

The signaller passing the metal ‘Train Staff’ to the crew of incoming trains, indicating they had permission to enter the single track section.

It took until 2020 for a modern remote controlled signalling system to be installed – but not without causing a level crossing irregularity during the commissioning process.

Progress on Regional Rail Link

At Footscray station the William Cooper Bridge had finally been finished.

Grass and trees cover what was an abandoned wasteland on Irving Street.

But with Regional Rail Link adding two more platforms to the station, it had to go.

But thankfully the Olympic Doughnut caravan survived.

Down the line at West Footscray, the old station was unchanged for now.

But there had been massive changes at Middle Footscray.

The entire row of compulsorily acquired houses had been demolished.

To make way for the future railway tracks.

Changes had also been made at the opposite end of Regional Rail Link, where the standard gauge tracks had been relocated to make room for the junction at West Werribee.

New tracks to South Morang

December 2011 saw a new station opened at Epping.

As part of the extension of the railway to South Morang.

The new station at South Morang was almost ready.

Which would see the end of the route 571 ‘TrainLink‘ bus service between Epping and South Morang.

Level crossing removals

There was no Level Crossing Removal Authority a decade ago, but the Anglesea Road level crossing on the Warrnambool line at Waurn Ponds was being removed.

A new road-over-rail bridge being built as part of the Geelong Ring Road project.

And a new pedestrian underpass was being built on Furner Avenue in North Geelong, replacing a pedestrian crossing as part of an ARTC-led upgrade of the freight railway into the Port of Geelong.

A bright spark

In Melbourne’s west millions were being spent on road duplication projects – like Kororoit Creek Road.

And railway station car park upgrades – such as this one at Newport.

But a new rail freight terminal also opened in December 2011 – the Sadleirs Logistics siding at Spotswood.

And something odd

Down in Geelong the local telco Neighbourhood Cable was bought out by the Canberra based and ACT branded TransACT – a rather odd sight.

But it only lasted a few years – TransACT was then bought out by iiNet.

Footnote

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