Old Northam Railway Station
The rail-line arrived in Northam in 1886 built as a spur line from the junction at Spencers Brook on the Perth to York line, after lobbying from the local settlers seeking access to the markets for their produce in Perth. The extension was officially opened by Governor Broome, amid much celebration by the local community on 13 October 1886. Local builder James Byfield built the original Northam station, a wooden structure, a few hundred metres east of where the present building stands.
With the discovery of gold in Southern Cross in 1887, and shortly after in Kalgoorlie, the State Government decided to build the Yilgarn Railway to Kalgoorlie to connect the port of Fremantle with the rapidly increasing population of the Goldfields. Three jumping off points were considered, the larger and more established town of York, or the smaller towns of Newcastle (now known as Toodyay) and Northam. After much debate and fierce lobbying by the residents of all three towns, Northam eventually won out, and its future as a major railway town was assured. Lightly laid track radiated out to serve the land opening up to farming, and a large marshalling yard adjoining the station saw freight travelling out to those areas, and faring produce being shipped to the markets in Perth, and to Fremantle for export.
Work commenced on the extension of the line to Kalgoorlie early in 1893, and the line to Southern Cross was handed over to the Government in January 1895. The line was soon extended to Kalgoorlie and a new Northam station (this building) was completed in 1900, as a major railway service centre on the line, by then known as the Eastern Goldfields Railway. In 1917, the extension of the line from Kalgoorlie to Port Pirie in South Australia was completed, finally connecting the west coast with the eastern states, albeit with different gauge tracks in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.
At its peak, the railways employed approximately 1,200 people in the Northam District, from Locomotive Drivers, Firemen, and Cleaners to the station staff, a large locomotive maintenance crew and Gangers who were responsible for maintaining the track Railway worker housing and small businesses sprang up around the station, leading to creation of almost a separate community of “West Northam” or the working class district of the town. The station also served as a Post Office for the western end of town. The mailing slots are still visible in the walls on the platform, and at the front of the building.
Many thousands of people have walked the platform, from miners and hopefuls travelling to the Goldfields, early settlers to all parts of the Wheatbelt, and servicemen during World War 2 and the Korean War, when the Northam Army Camp was a major training camp. After World War 2 many migrants from Europe arrived here for temporary resettlement in the Northam Army Camp, and Holden Camp, a former military hospital in Northam.
The station was officially closed on 14 February 1966 (which was also Decimalization Day, or the day Australia changed to decimal currency) when the track was realigned as part of the standard gauge project to connect all the mainland capital cities with a single gauge (4 foot-8-1/2 inches.) railway. The new track followed the Swan-Avon River valley to Toodyay, on to Northam and then follows essentially the original alignment to South Australia. A new station was opened at the eastern end of town and freight operations were transferred to Avon Yard on the northern outskirts of Northam.
The station was transferred to the ownership of the Northam Town Council, and was used by a variety of community groups for a time, but was in disuse when our group was formed in the early 1980’s to preserve and restore the building. It is now seeing new service as a museum. It is a general museum, and not just a railway museum, although the railway forms a large part of the displays.
The locomotive on display is a PMR Class steam locomotive, number 721, built by the North British Locomotive works, England, and placed in service with the WA Government Railways (WAGR) on 24 July 1950, as part of the post war modernisation and re-equipping of the railways. It was withdrawn from service with the coming of dieselisation on 14 August 1972, after a relatively short working life for a steam locomotive.
The coach behind the locomotive is AL59, built by the Oldburry Car and Wagon Company, England in 1895 for the Great Southern Land Company, a private land grant railway which operated between the towns of Beverley and Albany for a short period before being taken over by the WAGR. Built as a passenger coach, classed AC59, with the demise of the GSIC it began service with the WAGR. On 1 January 1922 it became AF59, still a passenger coach, but on 7 November 1952 it was converted to its present form and renumbered AL59. Based in Northam it served as the District Traffic Superintendent and District Engineers inspection coach until it was written off and acquired by our group in 1981.
The next coach VW5138 was originally a first class suburban passenger coach with a brake compartment. Built by the Gloucester Car and Wagon Company England, numbered AU307 it was placed in service on 20 April 1905. On 30 June 1967 it was converted for use as a mobile barracks car for gangers working on ballast and breakdown trains and renumbered VW5138. In the sleeping compartments you will notice the original seat base which forms the bed, and the original luggage racks above the bed. The seat on the other side of these compartments has been removed and replaced with a wardrobe and desk. VW5138 was withdrawn from service and purchased by our group in 1982. The brake van Z114, was built in the Midland Workshops of the WAGR in 1915.
In the yard of the station are a number of freight wagons. Although not as glamorous as steam locomotives or passenger coaches, they played a vital role for many years in transporting goods to the country areas and taking produce back to the Ports and thus to the markets of the world.
On the platform are some of the light track vehicles used by Railway Gangers who had the important task of inspecting and repairing the track. There is a one man and a two man Length Runners trike, a four man Kalamazoo and three different engine powered track vehicles.
The museum displays have been set up in the rooms opposite the locomotive.
