Lapstone Hill Railway Tunnel (and WWII munitions and mustard gas storage site)

Item details


Name of item:	Lapstone Hill Railway Tunnel (and WWII munitions and mustard gas storage site)
Other name/s:	Railway Tunnel
Type of item:	Built
Group/Collection:	Transport - Rail
Category:	Railway Tunnel
Primary address:	4, 6, 9 and 11 Brookdale Terrace, Glenbrook, NSW 2773
Local govt. area:	Blue Mountains

All addresses

Street Address	Suburb/town	LGA	Type
4, 6, 9 and 11 Brookdale Terrace	Glenbrook	Blue Mountains	Primary Address
15, 17 and 23 Hillside Crescent	Glenbrook	Blue Mountains	Alternate Address
23, 25, 27, 30, 32 and 34 Mount Street	Glenbrook	Blue Mountains	Alternate Address
2 Portal Road	Glenbrook	Blue Mountains	Alternate Address
3, 5, 7 and 14 Walters Avenue	Glenbrook	Blue Mountains	Alternate Address

Statement of significance:


	The tunnel has high significance as a major engineering component, expensive in men and money, in the first rerouting of the initial ascent of the Blue Mountains by rail.
	Date significance updated: 15 Jun 21
	Note: The State Heritage Inventory provides information about heritage items listed by local and State government agencies. The State Heritage Inventory is continually being updated by local and State agencies as new information becomes available. Read the Department of Premier and Cabinet copyright and disclaimer.

Description


Construction years:	1891-1892
Physical description:	The Lapstone Hill Railway Tunnel is a brick oviform tunnel entered at the west end from a cutting through the sandstone hill. A three brick arch with a stone torus mould surrounds the entry. A parapet above is built in margined rockfaced sandstone. Brick buttresses are either side of the entry arch.
Physical condition and/or Archaeological potential:	Good
	Date condition updated:17 Jan 00
Modifications and dates:	Rails removed Doors at ends
Further information:	The Blue Mountains Local Government Area is within the Country of the Darug and Gundungurra peoples and Blue Mountains City Council respects their cultural heritage and deep ongoing connection to this Country. This inventory sheet documents the European occupation of the site only, and the heritage significance of the place in this context (assessed against the heritage criteria set by the NSW Heritage Council). This does not therefore, represent a complete history of the place, or represent the perspectives of Darug and Gundungurra Traditional Owners in relation to the colonial impacts on this site. Consultation with Traditional Owners and other Aboriginal stakeholders is required, before Aboriginal Cultural Heritage that may be associated with this place, can be recorded.


Current use:	Not used
Former use:	Railway Tunnel; storage depot; mushroom farm

History

Historical notes:

The original line of railway which was opened in 1867 scaled the escarpment above Emu Plains by the Lapstone Zig Zag. At the top of the Zig Zag the railway followed the route now occupied by the Great Western Highway through Glenbrook as far as Blaxland. Because of the delays caused by the Lapstone Zig Zag and the increase in rail traffic, it was decided in 1891 that a tunnel should be built bypassing the Zig Zag. The tunnel and its new approaches were designed to form an elegant S-shape, starting at the Bottom Points of the Zig Zag and ending at old Glenbrook station (now demolished, on the present Great Western Highway).

The building of the tunnel in 1891-2 was contracted to Mr David Proudfoot at 43,096 pounds, for the conversion of the Lapstone Zig Zag line into a deviation on the main Western line. "By this work, which is to be completed by December 1 next, the present zig-zag above Emu Plains will be cut out, and in its place a deviation will leave the main line a little above Emu Plains Station, and, skirting the Lapstone Hill, will join the main line again near Glenbrook." [Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney NSW) Saturday 28 March 1891, page 42, titled 'Large Railway Contracts'].

Proudfoot's labourers and their families were established in two substantial camps at either end of the works, one at Glenbrook, the other at Lapstone. Because of Sir Arthur Streeton’s great painting ‘Fire’s On!’, the building of the tunnel and the fatal blasting accident which killed Thomas Lawless have become part of Australian mythology as well as railway history.

Other newspapers of 1891 have references to Lapstone Hill Deviation and Lapstone Hill.

The new tunnel opened to traffic on 18 December 1892, but it was never a success, because of the steep incline and the suffocating atmosphere particularly in the west-bound trains. The problem was finally addressed after the Lithgow Zig Zag deviation was completed in 1910 and the railway gangs were moved to Glenbrook. Significant and major works were involved in bypassing the Lapstone Hill Tunnel: a new viaduct (G025) was built over Knapsack Gully to the east; and the new line then ran through virgin country south of the old alignment as far as the present Lapstone Station and then turned west through a short tunnel under The Bluff and finally north to the present Glenbrook Station.

Initially it was planned to continue using the 1892 Lapstone Hill Tunnel for up trains and when the new deviation opened on 11 May 1913 the tunnel was still used for east-bound trains. But the new line had been duplicated and the up line was activated in September. Lapstone Hill Tunnel was last used for trains on 25 September 1913 and old Glenbrook Station was closed.

On 6 January 1942 the Air Board approved the acquisition of the disused 660-metre-long Lapstone Hill Railway Tunnel for the storage of bombs by the RAAF, a move that occurred on 4 April 1942. A variety of ammunition types, including 500 lb bombs and various types of chemical ammunition including mustard gas, was stored at this site over the years. [Australian Railway History Bulletin of the Australian Railway History Society, May 2008, page 158, by Geofff Plunkett] The facility was known as No. 2 Sub Depot of No. 1 Central Reserve RAAF and was vacated by the RAAF after the war. [Pocket Oz Travel and Information Guide, 2017]

A long-term local resident recalls the soldiers from the tunnel coming up to her house during the War to socialise and play the piano. She recalls that the bombs came before the mustard gas. [Glenbrook District Historical Society]

The lines in the tunnel were raised and it quietly decayed until, like some other disused railway tunnels, it was reopened as a mushroom farm. This use ceased when the lease expired in 2016 and the site awaits renewal.

Historic themes

Australian theme (abbrev)	New South Wales theme	Local theme
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Agriculture-Activities relating to the cultivation and rearing of plant and animal species, usually for commercial purposes, can include aquaculture	(none)-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Transport-Activities associated with the moving of people and goods from one place to another, and systems for the provision of such movements	The Great Western Railway-

Assessment of significance


SHR Criteria a) [Historical significance]	Lapstone Hill Railway Tunnel has high local significance as a major engineering component, expensive in men and money, in the first rerouting of the initial ascent of the Blue Mountains by rail.
SHR Criteria c) [Aesthetic significance]	Lapstone Hill Railway Tunnel is a fine example of an oviform tunnel on a large scale.
Integrity/Intactness:	High
Assessment criteria:	Items are assessed against the State Heritage Register (SHR) Criteria to determine the level of significance. Refer to the Listings below for the level of statutory protection.

Listings

Heritage Listing	Listing Title	Listing Number	Gazette Date	Gazette Number
Local Environmental Plan	Blue Mountains Local Environmental Plan 2015	G014	26 Mar 21	139
Local Environmental Plan - Lapsed	LEP1991	G014	27 Dec 91	183
Local Environmental Plan - Lapsed	LEP2005	G014	07 Oct 05	122
Heritage study		G014

Study details

Title	Year	Number	Author	Inspected by	Guidelines used
Blue Mountains Heritage Study	1983	G014	Croft & Associates Pty Ltd & Meredith Walker		Yes
Heritage Study Review, Blue Mountains	1992	G014	Tropman and Tropman		Yes
Blue Mountains Heritage Register Review	1999	G014	Jack, R. I. for University of Sydney	RIJ & PH	Yes
Technical Audit BM Heritage Register	2008	G014	Blue Mountains City Council	City Planning Branch	No
Technical Review	2010		Heritage Advisor		No
Heritage Review 2016-2017	2017	G014	Blue Mountains City Council		Yes

References, internet links & images

Type	Author	Year	Title	Internet Links
Written	Aston, Nell	1992	Rails, Roads and Ridges: A History of Lapstone Hill - Glenbrook, Part 1
Written	Singleton, C. C.,	1956	Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, No. 227, September

Note: internet links may be to web pages, documents or images.

(Click on thumbnail for full size image and image details)

Data source


The information for this entry comes from the following source:
Name:	Local Government
Database number:	1170262

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