| Historical notes: | Aboriginal Occupation
Prior to European settlement the Blue Mountains was the home of many autonomous Aboriginal groups who lived and moved around the region. There are six distinct tribal groups who have traditional rights and custodial responsibilities for the indigenous heritage of the region that are: the Darug, the Gandangurra, the Wanaruah, the Wiradjuri, the Darkinjung and the Tharawal.
Evidence of Aboriginal occupation and custodianship of the country within Blue Mountains National Park dates back to possibly 22,000 years B.P ((Stockton and Holland 1974; Williams et. al. 2012). The Blue Mountains contain a large number of significant sites which capture the relationship that Aboriginal people have had with country for thousands of generations.
The rich and varied evidence of traditional occupation of the reserves include archaeological deposits in open sites and rock shelters, stone implements, factory sites for tool production, axe grinding grooves and extensive art-work, including drawn, painted and stencilled images. Tracks and figurative motifs dominate the art sites (NPWS 1998). Motifs include anthropomorphic figures, animals, hand stencils and tracks of birds and kangaroos (NPWS 1998).
Colonial exploration and settlement:
Until 1813 the Blue Mountains proved a restriction to the expansion of settlement in Australia. In that year Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson made the first successful crossing and opened the vast interior of the country to settlement.
The construction of a road soon followed and in 1863 a railway was built as far as Penrith and extended as far as Mount Victoria by 1868. By the 1870s it had become fashionable for elite families to acquire mountain retreats with magnificent views where in summer the air was considerably cooler than Sydney. Villages such as Leura developed to serve these retreats which over time developed large European gardens.
The Great Western Railway:
The contract for extending the railway from Lawson to Blackheath was awarded in 1863 to W. Watkins, who completed the track a year ahead of schedule in 1866, although the ballasting of the line by a separate contractor took longer. Blackheath was to be the temporary terminus because of its level site and good water supply, but before the station was finished the destruction of the road bridge over the Nepean River at Emu Plains in the flood of 1867 prompted John Whitton, in charge of railways, to open the line as far as Wentworth Falls to assist stranded travellers to the west. (Blue Mountains Heritage Register Review, 1999).
The railway from Wentworth Falls to Mount Victoria was opened in 1868, passing through what was to become Katoomba. The Great Western Railway was intended to initially reach Bathurst but, beyond that town, its terminus was not stated.
The (now, Katoomba) station opened in 1874 as 'The Crushers'. A sandstone quarry suitable for producing ballast for the construction and maintenance of the line was developed just to the north of the line, and from 1874 The Crushers was a stopping-place for trains with quarrymen, equipment and wagons for transporting ballast. A platform was provided in 1877 close to the level-crossing keeper's cottage (demolished in 1902).
In 1881 a new timber platform and station were built, to the west of the level-crossing. The goods yard between the stations and Bathurst Road (then the Great Western Highway) was developed in 1883-4. This expansion was necessary because of Katoomba's growth in the 1880s and 1890s as a tourist and local commercial centre. The goods yard contains a valuable collection of traditional railway structures, including the 5 ton jib crane (no. T171), the goods shed 54' x 12' dating in part from 1881 and an unusual curved timber loading platform. There is also an office for the yard gatekeeper and for a signalman, all dating from the early 1900s.
In 1891, the 1881 station building was moved to the improved goods yard to the south. The Katoomba Times reported on 10 October 1891 that 'the old Katoomba station building is to be the goods shed, and was put into position last Wednesday (7 October 1891)', with the 1884 crane adjacent to the east. Around 1921 the goods yard was altered, the siding was realigned and the goods shed (the former station of 1881) was moved 18 metres to the east, where it still resides. The 1884 five-tonne crane was moved along with the shed to its present position.
The present island platform and building at Katoomba date from 1891 and was constructed for (Pounds)6,922 (including the subway) by Quiggan and Kermode, builders. They are unusual for two reasons. Firstly, the timber building is curved and, secondly, the building design was only used in the Sydney metropolitan rail system. It is the only such building constructed outside the Central to Parramatta line. It is one of 4 such structures remaining extant from a number of stations containing Type 10 buildings including Newtown, MacDonaldtown, Ashfield, Lewisham (all demolished - possibly other examples) and Summer Hill, Homebush and Croydon (extant). Extensions in the same style were carried out in 1913 for (Pounds)216. Its dominant feature is the extension of the roof bearers to form awnings on both sides and the position of small ornate brackets under the awning beams, marking a transition from the use of posted verandas to cantilevered awnings. The platform was reached by the use of a pedestrian subway constructed in 1891, which were rare outside Sydney.
The NSW Railway Institute ran a horticultural society that held its first flower show in 1896. The Institute's journal 'Railway Budget' carried gardening articles redolent of moral improvement. In 1899 the NSW Railway Commissioners launched an annual railway station garden competition, with categories including the most improved garden and the best bouquet of flowers. Signifiant among prize-winning railway gardens in NSW were those on the Blue Mountains and the North Shore lines, where some, including Killara) were developed and maintained by the local communities, with mass displays of flowering shrubs (Betteridge 2002, 501),
The other main platform building is the elevated, timber signal box, which was commissioned in 1903. The signal box contains a cam and tappet 40 lever interlocking machine that was installed in 1945. It is typical of the construction time and is similar to boxes at Mount Victoria, Newnes Junction, Lithgow Yard and Exeter.
The line was duplicated in 1902. A two-room timber building was built on the western end of the platform in 1909 for an inspector and an electrician and this building was extended in 1945 for use as a staff meal room. An 'out-of' shed completed the platform structures.
At the entrance to the Station are the 'Progress Buildings', shown on a plan as part of a new 'Booking and Parcels Office Building' dated 20/12/1938. These are a single storey group of 3 shops facing south to Bathurst Road with an additional shopfront facing east to the exit from the station subway. The easternmost shop, 283-285 Bathurst Road, retains its original brass front, albeit with modification and tiled piers between, the entries are recessed from the street with splayed shopfront reveals. The tiled and marble threshold records the name "MARX" an early Katoomba businessman who used the premises. The Progress Buildings are still owned by RailCorp and leased for private business.
The railway residence at 8 Abbotsford Rd was sold in 1964. |