Today we take a step back to the 1920s and take a walk around North Melbourne railway station, comparing it to what exists today.

At the north end of the platforms little has changed.



VPRS 12800/P3, item ADV 1607

The only difference I can spot is the removal of the sheltered timber platform seats, replaced by cold steel benches.

The entrance to platform 4 and 5 has changed a little more. Still used by trains headed west to Footscray, Sunshine and St Albans – these trains now head further north to Sydenham and Sunbury.



VPRS 12800/P3, item ADV 1606

The timber gates used by ticket checking staff are gone, replaced by fare gates on the main station concourse, and the pull down ‘bathgate’ train indicators have been replaced by LCD screens.

A much bigger change is visible outside the station, at what was once the main entrance for passengers.



VPRS 12800/P3, item ADV 0624

Dynon Road once crossed the railway tracks via the north side of North Melbourne station, until the current bridge was opened in 1968.

This spartan brick station building replaced the original 1886 station building in 1974, until it was made redundant in 2009 with the completion of the current southern entrance to the station.

Another contrast can be seen this eastwards view from platform 6.



VPRS 12800/P3, item ADV 0705

The only constant is the bluestone faced platforms – static billboards are now motorised advertising panels, towering apartment buildings have replaced terraced houses, and the gardens along the Railway Place have given way for a concrete retaining wall.

The city end of the platforms have seen similar changes.



VPRS 12800/P3, item ADV 1185

Neatly tended gardens haven given way to a weed covered slope, a brown brick bunker has been erected to house modern signalling equipment, and the bluestone platform face has given way to concrete.

At first glance little has changed north of the station, where the Upfield line branches off from the Werribee, Sunbury and Craigieburn bound tracks.



VPRS 12903 P1 Box 164/05

The same number of tracks remain in place today, the only difference being the lineside signals and gantries supporting the overhead wires.

But this view from the December 1935 edition of National Geographic Magazine titled ‘Flashes of Colour in the Fifth Continent’ tell a different story.



From ‘Melbourne as featured in National Geographic Magazine 1935’

The “blossums and foliage between the rail lines on the embankments provide a colourful approach to the capital of Victoria” are long gone, replaced by weeds and gravel.

The same contrast can be seen at the city end of the station, where a carefully manicured garden occupied the space between Railway Place and the tracks.



VPRS 12903/P1, item Box 164/07

The garden was demolished in the 1960s when the North Melbourne flyover was constructed as part of the North East standard gauge project, the area taking on the current look following the completion of the Regional Rail Link project in 2015.

A short history lesson

1859: station opened

1886: six platform station complex completed

1919: electric trains introduced

1962: North Melbourne flyover completed

1968: Dynon Road moved onto new bridge

1970s: track rearrangement to cater for City Loop

1974: new entrance replaced 1886 building

2009: current southern station entrance opened, northern entrance closed

2015: North Melbourne flyover rebuilt for Regional Rail Link

Footnote

A 1979 photo of North Melbourne station by Len Johnston.

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