Apr 11, 2023 3 min read

Calls for Heidelberg Station upgrade -

Great patience required in 1901 ingetting "movement at the station". Perhaps A. B. PATERSON was referring to a different station.

November 1996 Elecrail Special drawing a crowd at Heidelberg Station. (Courtesy Nilss)

What a calamity! Good fares-paying passengers alight the train at Heidelberg and find .........nothing by way of passenger or goods buildings!

1901, the year of Federation. A time of nation-building and great excitement at this wide brown lands prospects.

HEIDELBERG STATION HAD NO BUILDINGS TILL 1913!
HEIDELBERG RAILWAY STATION (Mercury and Weekly Courier, 29.11.1901). (Sourced by Nilss)

"Agitation for a new railway station.

A discussion was initiated at the meeting of the Heidelberg Progress Society on Tuesday evening, by Mr Davies, on the above subject. He was warmly supported in his remarks by all members present. Mr Davies suggested that the council should be written to, and asked to move in the direction of advocating the immediate construction of a new and suitable railway station building at Heidelberg.

At present there was no shelter for passengers, and no protection for goods. Provision would be made in the new buildings to remedy these defects. Heidelberg was the terminal station, and the work he advocated was urgently required.

On King's birthday there were immense crowds of people on the station, and eight porters were kept busily employed all the day.

On Cup day the morning was wet, and one train load of intending picnickers had returned to Melbourne, when they found that by leaving the railway carriages, they would be drenched with rain, owing to the lack of shelter accommodation.

He moved that the council be written to on the subject. The President (Mr May), said the department was spending money lavishly on other station buildings on the line. Magnificent stations were being built at the East Melbourne end. That was, he supposed, because the residents were aristocratic.

The money provided for the Heidelberg station it appeared, was being diverted. The stations at the Melbourne end were being built with our money.,

Mr Davies: And Heidelberg is better entitled to a new station. Mr. May: A handsome and convenient station at Heidelberg would certainly tend to increase the traffic on the line. It would give visitors a better impression of the district. 'While there was no shelter the first impressions formed by visitors would be unpleasant.“

Mr Farrar said an endeavor should be made to get a better entrance to the station. The existing arrangements appeared to have been originally made to suit the Austin hospital.

Mr. Annear pointed out that Heidelberg could be a terminal station even after the Eltham line was opened, as it would continue to be the point from which coach traffic would radiate to outlying districts."

In 1890 you could hop off the train and stroll down Burgundy Street to the Heidelberg business centre - or the Barkly Hotel.

So in late 1901 Mr. Davies of the Heidelberg Progress Association was passionate in his advocacy of a railway station fit for purpose.

In 1913 the new station - pretty much as we see the structure in 2023 - opened.

Passenger waiting rooms, goods shed, toilets for patrons to use.

It took 12 years for the work of the Heidelberg Progress Association to bear fruit.

That means that from the line opening in 1888, to much fanfare, until 1913 (yessiree, that's 25 years) passengers had to brave the elements on the Heidelberg platform!

Our Friends of Eaglemont Village campaigning to have the well-maintained, perfectly servicable public toilets at Eaglemont Station open to the public faces the same chain-dragging reluctance............