| Physical description: | PRECINCT ELEMENTS
Platform building (1893) (Type 11)
Island Platform (1893)
Turntable (1897, 1980s, 2015): 60` Sellers and ash pits x 2 (c. 1925)
Footbridge (2005)
Bong Bong Street overbridge (c. 1990)
PLATFORM BUILDING (1893)
Exterior: This is a single storey brick building with a gabled corrugated steel roof with timber tongue & grooved boarding to gable ends. The building has timber framed double hung windows with 9 paned top sashes with coloured glass panes to top sashes and frosted glass to bottom sashes. The majority of doors are timber panelled, and there are some timber panelled double doors, all with multipaned fanlights (some fanlights covered over). Door and window openings have elaborate sandstone reveals and triangular pediments. The awnings on both sides of the building have corrugated steel skillion roofs and elaborate decorative steel awning brackets, mounted on sandstone wall brackets.
There is a small weatherboard addition to the south end of the main platform building (contains signal lever frame) which has 4 early stop chamfered timber posts at each corner, indicating that this is a weatherboard infill structure within an originally open awning structure. There are modern security screens to windows, and some modern timber flush doors. There is a brick screen wall to the north end of building to screen the entry to men’s toilets.
Interior: The waiting area has modern floor tiling, and modern ticket windows, timber panelled double doors both sides with frosted glass 8 paned fanlights, a later ceiling with timber battens, and later timber veneer panelling to around 2m height internally to the waiting room. Offices also have later ceilings and later timber veneer panelling to around 2m height (indicating possible presence of rising damp).
PLATFORM (1893, extended 1925)
The island has rare, early concrete retaining walls (1893, unreinforced, cast in situ, vertical profile), remains of lever bay on Platform 1, and a modern asphalt surface. The original platforms have been raised in height, also in concrete. The island is extended to north with an open steel rail frame section with a concrete deck, and to the south with precast concrete units.
TURNTABLE (1897, 1980s, 2015) AND ASH PITS
The turntable at Kiama is a 60 foot (18.5m) railway turntable comprising a centrally pivoted bridge set within a circular pit. The bridge has wheels on either end, running on a circular single rail mounted on timber sleepers running around the inside of the pit. The turntable pit is a circular brick edged excavation with brick in stretcher bond with a soldier course capping. The bridge is a riveted steel structure comprising two parallel, cross-linked, arched plate-web girders with a set of rails running along the top surface, with a plate steel walkway with handrails on either side. Steel members are marked “Cargo Fleet, England”. Cut-away sections around the central pivot bear the mark of having been cut with an oxy-acetylene torch during the manufacturing process. The presence of oxy-acetylene cuts within the structure suggest a date in the early twentieth century. The general appearance, materials and standard of finish are consistent with it being manufactured in the railway workshops. The turntable was refurbished in the 1980s and again c.2015.
(Ash pits - not confirmed extant. Described in earlier study and on historic plans). The 2 rectangular ash pits are reportedly located to the north of the turntable, one of which was formerly within the engine shed (engine shed no longer extant).
FOOTBRIDGE (2005)
A modern concrete, steel and glass structure with lift and stairs to platform, also modern canopy connecting platform building to the footbridge.
BONG BONG STREET OVERBRIDGE (c. 1990)
A modern concrete road overbridge with concrete piers, located south of the footbridge. Excluded from listing.
MOVABLE
NSW Railway heritage listed sites contain significant collections of stored movable railway heritage, including furniture, signs, operational objects, ex-booking office and ticketing objects, paper records, clocks, memorabilia, indicator boards and artwork. Individually, these objects are important components of the history of each site. Together, they form a large and diverse collection of movable objects across the NSW rail network. Sydney Trains maintains a database of movable heritage. For up-to-date information on all movable heritage items at this site, contact the Sydney Trains heritage team.
Key items at this station include but are not limited to:
Plaque - 100 years of rail transport between Kiama and Bomaderry, presented 30 May 1993
Plaque - Commemorating the arrival of the first electric train from Dapto to Kiama, 17 November 2001
Sign - "Kiama Taxi" - early/old.
Large round platform number signs fitted to cast iron verandah brackets
"Kiama" and "1893" wall-mounted station signs
two single timber rollover indicator boards with clock faces and one foot pedal
In former signal box - set of early cast iron signal levers, two-door timber cupboard.
In staff room, an electric staff instrument, staff contact box, wall-mounted lock box, several SRA SL brass padlocks, series of black and white prints of historic photos related to Kiama, timber stool.
LANDSCAPE/NATURAL FEATURES
Series of garden beds along the platform with established ornamental shrubs and small trees.
There are views from the Station footbridge and platform to the southeast to the ocean and Norfolk Island pine plantings along the Kiama ocean frontage respectively. |