Upline From Station

The photograph looks north along the branch line from Bombala Railway Station, out along the corridor that carried the full weight of a pastoral economy for 65 years. The track bed runs straight into the Monaro tablelands, dry grass pressing in from both sides, the ballast undisturbed by anything that matters now. Bombala Railway Station opened on 21 November 1921 as the terminus of the Goulburn-Bombala branch line, operated by NSW Government Railways. It was the endpoint of a network that had been building south from Joppa Junction since 1884, reaching Cooma in 1889, Nimmitabel in 1912, and finally arriving here after construction halted during the First World War through lack of funds. The 38-mile extension from Nimmitabel took the line's total distance from Sydney to 332 miles and 16 chains. The station building itself is a Type 11 pre-cast concrete structure, one of approximately 140 built to a standard NSWGR design across regional New South Wales between 1919 and 1932. Heritage NSW has described it as one of the best pre-cast concrete structures to survive in the state. The yard behind the photograph stretches approximately 900 metres. It held a 60-foot turntable, a gantry crane opposite the main platform, a goods shed, weighbridge hut, loading bank, and cattle yards. The primary cargo moving through was wool, beef cattle, superphosphate, and farm machinery. During the Second World War, petrol rationing made the line the sole reliable supply route for scattered Monaro communities. Diesel railmotors replaced steam in regular service from the 1950s onwards, with steam operations formally ceasing in 1962. The last regular service into Bombala Railway Station ran on 26 March 1986. The branch line was officially closed in May 1989 after the Numeralla River bridge at Chakola was declared unsafe. The station was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. This photograph was made in 2016.