Tuggeranong railway station

Tuggeranong
Tuggeranong Siding with loading ramp at rear right (Oct 2021). The station platform once stood in the space to the left of the now-disused railway line.
General information
LocationOld Tuggeranong Road, Tralee, New South Wales 2901
Australia
Coordinates35°26′00″S 149°08′36″E / 35.4334°S 149.1434°E / -35.4334; 149.1434
Line(s)Bombala railway line
Platforms1
Tracks1
Other information
StatusClosed
History
Opened8 December 1887
Closed8 February 1976
Services
Preceding station Former services Following station
Royalla
towards Bombala
 Bombala Line Letchworth
towards Sydney

Tuggeranong is a former railway station, sometimes referred to as Tuggeranong Siding or Tuggeranong Platform, that was located on a now-disused portion of the Bombala railway line.

Situated in the historic Parish of Tuggeranong, the station also shared its name with the nearby Grazing and Dairy Farm of Tuggeranong.[1] Most of the land encompassed by the Parish was transferred from New South Wales to the Australian Capital Territory in 1911. Today Tuggeranong is a suburban district in Canberra, however the former station site is just over the border in New South Wales. The former station predates the suburban district by over eight decades,[2][3] and it closed just over two years after the suburban district was inaugurated.

The station's 'mileage' was originally 202 miles 71 chains (around 326.5 km), by rail from Sydney—via the older Picton-Mittagong route—but, at the time it closed, its 'mileage' was 335.629 km.[4][3]

It lies at the start of a large bend, in the railway line, known as the 'Horseshoe Bend',[5][6] that skirts the Melrose Valley[6]—formed by Dunn's Creek and its tributaries, and which is a part of the upper catchment of Tuggeranong Creek—as the line climbs toward Royalla. As a result, the railway line runs generally from south-west to north-east at this location.

The railway line from Queanbeyan to Michelago via Tuggeranong opened to traffic on 7 December 1887.[7]

The station platform and its waiting room were on the northern side of the line.[3][8][9] The station building was described as "a weatherboard waiting-shed 30ft. x 15ft., with iron roof, built on pile foundations." The station platform was 264 feet long by 12 feet wide, and the siding 12 chains in length. The siding was a dead-end siding connected to the main line, at the 'up' end only, by a set of manually-operated double-ended points, with the points on the siding track acting as a catch point. There was also a level crossing of what is now Old Tuggeranong Road.[4][9][10]

Nearby, on the hill south-west of the station site, was a Travelling Stock Reserve,[6] in recent years known as the Old Tuggeranong TSR[11]—now Melrose Nature Reserve and part of Canberra Nature Park[12]—into which livestock were herded before or after being carried by rail.

The platform and waiting room were not the only structures at the site. A photograph taken in 1920 shows several other small structures associated with the stock pens for the loading ramp and the railway fettlers that were stationed at Tuggeranong.[13][14][15] The fettler's (ganger) cottage was removed in the 1950s.[6]

  1. ^ "6960 Acres of Land". The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. 24 August 1841. p. 4. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  2. ^ "NSW Railway Station Names and Origins". www.nswrail.net. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b c "Tuggeranong". www.nswrail.net. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Goulburn to Cooma Railway Extension". Sydney Morning Herald. 6 December 1887. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  5. ^ National Trust of Australia (ACT) (2011). "Brochure - A heritage tour – Northern Centenary Border Walks" (PDF). ACT Government. p. 19.
  6. ^ a b c d Williams, Karen (2003–2004). "Melrose Valley Preliminary Cultural Survey Report, PART 2: MELROSE VALLEY PRELIMINARY HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY REPORT" (PDF). pp. 35, 36, 39–41.
  7. ^ "Goulburn to Cooma Railway". Town and Country Journal: 15. 10 December 1887.
  8. ^ "35°26'00.2"S 149°08'36.2"E · Dunns Creek, 174 Old Tuggeranong Rd, Tralee NSW 2901, Australia". Google Maps. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  9. ^ a b "Plan of a road leading from the Queanbeyan to Tharwa Road to the Tuggeranong Railway Station, in the Parish of Tuggeranong in the County of Murray [cartographic material] : proposed to be opened as a Parish Road under the Act of Council 4, Wm. the 4th, No. 11, and resumed under the 110th. clause of the Act 48 Victoria no. 18 : road proposed to be opened one chain wide shewn by red tint". Trove. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  10. ^ "Basic Track Structure Point & Crossing – Railway Signalling Concepts". Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  11. ^ "Old Tuggeranong Tsr · Australian Capital Territory 2901, Australia". Google Maps. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
  12. ^ ACT Government, Environment and Planning (6 August 2021). "Melrose Nature Reserve". Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate - Environment. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
  13. ^ "Tuggeranong railway siding [picture]". Trove. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  14. ^ "Railway Fettler Killed". Age. 25 February 1910. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  15. ^ "fettler", Wiktionary, 15 October 2019, retrieved 28 October 2021