Gantry Crane

A rusted steel gantry crane spans the siding at Bombala Railway Station. A clearance sign reads 4.3 metres. Below it, an open hopper wagon and a black tank car sit idle on the tracks, weeds pushing through the ballast around the sleepers. The crane was positioned opposite the main platform to serve the goods handling needs of a working terminus. In 2016, this is what remained. Bombala Railway Station opened for passenger services on 21 November 1921, the terminus of a branch line that had taken 37 years to push south from Joppa Junction to the Monaro tablelands. The line carried wool and beef cattle out of the region, and fertiliser, tractors, and harvesters back in. The yard, approximately 900 metres in length, was built with this freight economy in mind: goods shed, loading bank, cattle yards, a 60-foot turntable, and the gantry crane visible here, each piece of infrastructure placed to move the produce of the surrounding pastoral country onto and off rolling stock. The station was built to the NSW Government Railways Type 11 pre-cast concrete standard, one of roughly 140 such structures erected across regional NSW between 1919 and 1932. Bombala's was constructed in 1921, a single build, and it was described by Heritage NSW as one of the best pre-cast concrete structures to survive in the state. Regular steam operations on the line ceased in 1962. The last official passenger train ran in August 1974. On 26 March 1986, the station closed; the final visit was made by 3 CPH railmotors. The branch line itself was officially closed in May 1989, after the Numeralla River bridge at Chakola was declared unsafe. The hopper wagon and tank car in the frame have not moved in years. The clearance sign is still accurate to the centimetre. The yard has been maintained by volunteers from the Friends of Bombala Railway, and the station and its structures remain largely intact. The gantry crane stays where it was placed, opposite the platform, doing nothing now but holding its height.