Yard

The yard at Bombala Railway Station stretches 900 metres from the road to the terminus buffer. Within that length sits a nearly complete picture of how a rural NSW terminus was built and equipped: the corrugated iron goods shed, the loading bank, the cattle yards, the 60-foot turntable, and the weighbridge hut, all dating from 1921 and all still standing. NSW Government Railways opened the station for passenger services on 21 November 1921, completing a line that had taken 37 years to push south from Joppa Junction to the Monaro tablelands. The branch served the pastoral communities of south-east NSW: wool and beef cattle moved out, superphosphate and machinery moved in. During the Second World War, with petrol rationing effectively eliminating road transport as an option, the line became the sole reliable supply route for scattered Monaro farming communities. Diesel railmotors replaced steam on the line from the 1950s, and regular steam operations ceased in 1962. Passenger services ended in August 1974. The station closed on 26 March 1986, its last visit marked by 3 CPH railmotors. The branch line itself was officially closed in May 1989 after the Numeralla River bridge at Chakola was declared unsafe. What the photograph records is a yard that has not been substantially altered since the day it opened. Heritage NSW assessed Bombala Railway Station as "one of the most intact and well preserved country sites from late in the railways expansion period, c. 1920," and added the site to the NSW State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. The goods shed, the turntable pit, the loading bank, the weighbridge hut: each structure appears in this frame much as it did when the first train arrived. The Friends of Bombala Railway have maintained the precinct through volunteer effort for over 14 years. This photograph was made in 2016.