Merredin Railway Station Group

Child Places

• 01577 Merredin Railway Station Group
• 03641 Merredin Railway Water Tank

Statement of Significance

Merredin Railway Station Group has considerable heritage significance, as it is one of the most complete and multi-faceted groups of railway buildings in WA. It has rarity value as a group and for individual elements including the only intact elevated signal box remaining in the rural area of Western Australia. The group has aesthetic value as a landmark and represents a way of life no longer practised

Physical Description

Merredin Railway Station Group is located on the railway reserve. The water tank and tower is to the east of the main complex. The 12m tail tower is made of timber in fair to good condition, whilst the 25,000 gallon square cast iron tank was built to a standard WAGR design. 'Kalgoorlie Bitter' is painted on the side. Station building - double brick construction with terracotta clay tiled roof and in sound condition. Contains ticket office, former parcels office that opens into a hallway on the north side and five rooms from the hallway on the south side. Ceilings mainly plasterboard, most walls are hard plaster with ticket office having vertical tongue and groove lining. Signal box -three storey high timber framed and weatherboard clad building on steel rail structure. Signal frame is on the top floor. Generally it is in good condition. Waiting rooms - rectangular brick (face brick painted) building with CGI gable roof. It has painted concrete floors and mainly plastered walls. In Ladies' waiting room is the original fireplace and timber seating on turned timber legs, men's smaller with less seating. Condition is fair to good. Refreshment room - rectangular brick (face brick painted) building with terracotta clay tiled roof Ceilings are Masonite with timber battens and floor is still timber. Eastern end had two sets of double sliding doors and fanlights. Cellar is accessed from trapdoor behind the bar. It has painted brick walls and ceiling is unlined. Barrel roll access external on east end of building. Condition fair to good. Platform is bitumenised but the surface is badly cracked. Overall the Railway Group is in good condition with minimal changes to the fabric, except for the painting of the entire face brick facade of all three building.

History

Assessment 2002 Construction: tank & Tower: 1893 Signal Box 1913 Waiting Rooms: 1918 Station: 1928 Refreshment rooms & cellar: 1915,1928 With the discovery of gold in the Southern Cross and KaIgoorlie-Coolgardie areas transport to and from the district was required. The Eastern Railway, which had been constructed as far as Northam in 1886, was extended to Southern Cross in 1894, and to Kalgoorlie in 1897 under the management of C.Y. O'Connor. Water supply was problem but the large rock, Merredin Peak, provided a good water catchment. The water was pumped to the Water Tower, which was erected in the Merredin railway yard in 1893. The water was gravity fed from the Water Tower to the railway engines. Joseph McDowell was the successful tenderer for the Yilgarn Railway contract, which comprised the Northam to the Southern Cross railway, on 29 November 1892. Construction included the water tank and tower. The government took over the Northam-Southern Cross section of the Eastern Goldfields railway on 1 July 1894. As well as servicing the goldfields, the railway opened up the district for settlers on the land. Branch lines were constructed into the new wheat growing areas to provide better transport for farm produce and supplies. With the expansion of wheat and sheep farming into the districts north and south of Merredin, a network of light agricultural lines was built to service the area. Merredin became a key railway centre with the first branchline being the one via Wyalkatchem and Dowerin to Northam. Merredin was now a busy junction. To deal with the growing traffic on the lines, a Signal Cabin was constructed on the platform in 1913. The signalling was brought into use on March 9 , 1914 and served the yard and the junction for the Dowerin-Merredin and the Bruce Rock -Merredin lines. From 10 November that year, all trains were diverted to and from the new main line on the North side of the platform. In 1915, a toilet was added to the Signal Cabin, and work was under way to improve the Refreshment Rooms. A cellar was constructed of brick and used to store drinks and perishables. Construction of the Waiting Rooms was begun later in 1918, but the place was not completed until August 1920. Merredin's new station buildings were constructed using 'salmon tinted Coolgardie bricks salvaged from the Golden Gate, Hannan Street and Kallaroo Stations'. The buildings, constructed in 1927, were the brick and tile Refreshment Rooms and the Main Station Building. In 1963 the WAGR Chief Mechanical Engineer decreed that Merredin would be fully dieselised by the end of 1963/4 with diesel locomotives used on all branchlines. Combined with the advent of standard gauge in the 1960s a new railway yard was built at West Merredin and even though the branchline services north and south of Merredin continued, they were all operated from West Merredin. The signal cabin's function as controller of the yard was finished too. The Merredin Station was no longer required for railway purposes. A referendum was held on whether to keep Merredin Railway Station Group. The Merredin Museum and Historical Society was set up to handle its conversion into a railway museum. The Old Station Museum opened in 1978. In 2001, Merredin Railway Station Group is a living railway station museum, a memorial to a way of life when train travel was the main mode of passenger transport. The Refreshment Rooms are used by the Merredin Fine Arts Society for their art gallery and other purposes.

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