The future of listed heritage locations within the Redfern Railway Precinct.

The First Stage of the Redfern Waterloo Project lists twelve “Heritage Items” within the Redfern Railway Precinct (categorised in the Heritage Schedule[1]). Following are positive suggestions for presenting some of the locations to provide a concept of the heritage value of the whole Redfern site. The comments go beyond the heritage value of the buildings to other events that are significant in Australian industrial history. The listed locations have been arranged as a walking tour that progresses from one to the next.  The overall site viewed in this way opens the way for the creation of sound economic-based proposals for the renewal of the Redfern Railway area and use, other than the big high rise development that the Government sees as the only source of finance for the Redfern Waterloo Project. A public call for alternative proposals for the site should follow and be directed at protecting the heritage nature of the area, while retaining good liveable spaces for those who will live and work in the area.

Redfern Railway Station Ticket and Booking Office (Heritage Item 11: see map)

The plans are for a massive refurbishment of Redfern Station. If this could retain heritage items it would be unique in the world. Sections of the railway station office provide a glimpse of the older booking booth that dispersed tickets through a slot in a small glass-sliding window to the customer. No doubt the area could feature many things associated with the old booking office including a manually operated destination indicator board to Sydney suburbs. However, the view to the city from this spot looking north should also be considered. From this point many of the buildings and locations associated with the original Redfern to Parramatta line can be seen including the site of the original Redfern Railway Station at Cleveland St, the mortuary etc. A further display at this booking office might be devoted to those who worked there. This always included a large number of Aborigines on the staff, as well as many winners of the NSW Railway garden competition that was a feature of the Redfern Number 1 platform.

The walk along Platform 1 simply requires a railway ticket. It could begin by going down the steps and along a platform of the gardens that were once a highlight of the South Sydney area and Sydney’s Spring festival. An alternative for local residents and non-railway ticket holders would be a walk down Little Eveleigh Street to the city end of Wilson St.  If the wooden fence along little Eveleigh Street, that has been built on top of the cliff overlooking Platform 1, were replaced with a viewing platform and a see-through fence erected, this would provide a view of South Eveleigh down to the Large Erecting Shed and the area of the original locomotive running sheds.  Details of the overall site could be added to this viewing platform. The short walk down this lane provides several examples of Eveleigh workers’ cottages that were once a feature of the area as well as entry to the former Carriage Works site via Wilson St from where a footbridge once joined the two sides of the old workshops.  Under the Redfern Waterloo plan a similar bridge is to be installed.

The Telecommunications Equipment Centre  (H I 10).

The first heritage listed building is the Telecommunications Equipment Centre. This is a modern name for the small workshop located immediately at the end of Platform 1. The land extends under the old bridge that once joined Wilson St with the Locomotive Workshop. This workshop was associated with the railway signalling and communications system that ran alongside every railway line in the system.  NSW Railway used Morse Code telegrams from its early days and later its own telephone systems.  They were Australian pioneers in a service that connected with other Australian States and the overseas telegraph service long before the PMG was established.

A display of this early equipment associated with this workshop could easily be developed at this location as a result of the work of a voluntary association who have collected and repaired this historical equipment Also this would be an excellent location to place alongside the workshop on an existing railway spur of the Fan Track a display of the NSW Railway’s Travelling Post Office, described by Banjo Patterson in his poem ‘The Travelling Post Office’.  The repair of the postal vans used in this operation was regularly undertaken in the carriage repair area. Some of the original vans are still available for such a display.  

Directly outside this area 10 metres to the left (now mainly pulled down) was the Train Equipment Workshop originally known as ‘Train Lighting’.  This workshop saw the development of the lighting of NSW trains from candles and gas lights to small electrical generators and the building of air-conditioned trains like the Silver City Comet. This is an interesting story in itself of cutting edge nineteenth century technology developed by Australian Electrical Engineers.

Chief Mechanical Engineers Building (HI 9).

Facing Wilson St level 20 metres above the Telecommunications Equipment Centre is the Chief Mechanical Engineers Building.  In the early NSW railway systems this building housed those who played a major role in the building, running and repairing of anything that opened and shut in the railway. This included managing a string of major workshops (not just in the Eveleigh area), running depots, bridge building operations such as those that built the second Hawkesbury River Bridge.  An exhibition showing this huge engineering planning process and those who worked from there would provide an understanding of how this operation reached into every part of NSW and the background to some of the Engineers who were responsible for this work. This building once had many features and art items that were related to the railways in the Eveleigh and Redfern area.

Scientific Services Building (HI 8).

This listed building is connected by a short passage to the Chief Mechanical Engineers Building.  Its heritage and historical significance lies partly in the fact that this was the technical control hub for all railway equipment and the many products that the railway produced itself or purchased.  Their major responsibility was to detect faults. The existing building still may have the testing rooms and equipment that would date back to the early days of Eveleigh and would provide a display of applied science in the railway industry. 

Portion of The Fan Tracks, North Eveleigh (between HI 8 and 7).

This is a series of railway lines set out in a fan shape, listed for their heritage value. Railway carriages would enter the railway yard for repairs or overnight storage before going into service at Central Station or into the carriage repair areas. This occurred via a single line coming out of the main railway line near Redfern Station. The carriages would then be shunted into the yard through a series of hand-operated points. This enabled them to be fanned out to other railway lines where they could be fed into the next major building (the Paint Shop) or proceed on to other parts of the carriage works. This section of rail track would be the last operating fan track in NSW, and perhaps Australia. Some thought should be given to a display demonstrating how the fan operates.

The Paint Shop (HI 7).

This is one of the largest buildings of the “Heritage Items within the Redfern Railway Precinct”.  It is 0.6 ha in area. At the moment a major part of RailCorp’s mobile heritage items are stored here. This is basically a collection of mobile carriages including the Royal Carriage, and the Governor’s and Railway Commissioners’ Carriages. They were stored in this area originally with the view that the Paint Shop (their historical home) would become part of a NSW railway museum site.  The fan of railway tracks mentioned above lead from this covered area into the yard that could provide excellent display sites for these carriages rarely seen by the public. The Paint Shop history is important and has many interesting railway stories that should be featured at this site.  The skills practised in the Paint Shop were by master painters of a bygone era, which among other things required them to prepare paints to be used on the spot. Their decorative skills were not limited to paint but include all kinds of paper decorations and other rare materials. In some cases, as in the presentation of the Royal Carriage, knowledge of working with gold was required. In the early days where thin metal was used for such things as ornate ceiling casts this was carried out by specialist tinsmiths who could trace their craft back to making armour for royalty. On this site when War World 1 was declared in 1914, the first recruiting for the Railway Regiment of the 1^st AIF took place and many of these workers marched to the city to join up.

Blacksmith Workshops, North Eveleigh (HI 6).

This listed Blacksmith Shop situated 10 metres from the carriage workshop end of the Paint Shop has a different function to the heavy blacksmith’s functions carried out in the first two bays of the Locomotive Workshop (ATP) blacksmith area that is still intact and functioning. This blacksmith shop was lighter than the locomotive one and was more attuned to the Art-Deco requirements of the heritage carriages that historically were kept and repaired in the paint shop and supported by practitioners of manual arts skills. This area lends itself to include examples of railway manual arts as items that were manufactured at this location.  It is adjacent to Arts NSW development of the old Carriage Works Performing Arts Centre and has already seen some development as the Wilson St entrance to the theatre.

A broader picture of the new Performing Arts Centre[2] indicates that the development will occur in “five of the 10 bays in the [Carriage] workshops.”  And  the centre  will contain  “three performing spaces, with the biggest seating 800, three rehearsal rooms, workshops, office space, a cafe, a long bar, and an observation deck that looks down on the gigantic 65-metre-long foyer. Parts of the complex will be let to commercial tenants who will subsidise the arts spaces.”

Interestingly this  article describing the intended funtioning of  The Performing Arts Centre is the first sign of any real attempt to link the 12 heritage locations of the Redfern Railway Precinct with their past. It says:  ‘At the main entrance, an orange-red glass wall will be etched with a blueprint of the old Everleigh rail yards, while foyer panels will tell the story of the site, once home to 15 workshops housing blacksmiths, coppersmiths, tinsmiths, springsmiths, plumbers, gasfitters, boilermakers, patternmakers, wheelwrights and carpenters’.

Ambulance Room First Aid Centre (HI 5).

The Carriage Works Ambulance Room is not mentioned in the listed Heritage Items but it was located at the bottom of the steps leading from Wilson St.  A second industrial Ambulance Room was located at the Locomotive Workshop. These rooms which have been destroyed were the foundation site(s) of industrial medical centres in Australia. They were built and staffed with trained industrial medical people in response to one of the highest rates of industrial accident rates found in Australian heavy industry. This Wilson St entrance could include a display area of such pioneering industrial safety policy. Among the medical staff to work in these rooms for many years was Sister Agnes Mary Lions who was awarded the MBE for her services to Industrial Nursing.  This was one of the few areas in which Eveleigh women workers were recognised. Many women were employed in this workforce during the Second World War in special wartime industrial production. Their role deserves recognition.

 The Carriage Works Traverser  (surrounds of HI 5), 

Again this piece of railway technology seems to have escaped Frank Sartor’s heritage list. Like the Fan Track at the opposite end of the paint shop this is a functioning piece of railway engineering that demonstrates how the giant repair system of the Carriage Works functioned.  The traverser was a mobile link between operations in the Paint Shop and all other repair functions carried out in the main buildings of the Carriage Workshops and areas beyond.  This traverser has the potential to be an operating demonstration of railway engineering.

The Carriage Works- North Eveleigh   (HI 5).

This is listed as an area of 1.7 ha in the Heritage List, but it is uncertain how much exactly has been allocated to the Redfern Waterloo Authority.

An Overhead Foot Bridge (between HI 10 and 3).

Two traditional walking links were located within the Redfern Railway Precinct when the area functioned as a working unit. One link under the main railway line was located near the carriage works and joined this area with the 1880’s steam running sheds on the locomotive side of the site. The second was an overhead bridge with an entrance from Wilson St located near adjacent to the Chief Mechanical Engineers Building that allow a direct walking link with the Locomotive Works Manger Office the first listed building on the current ATP site. The original bridge allowed railway workers access to the Eveleigh site as a whole and some convenient access for local residents in the western sections of Redfern to local activities in south-eastern areas such as Alexandria and Moore Park.  The bridge played a big part in keeping the Botany Road shopping street alive by being used by University students and railway employees. The bridge also serviced those in the university who travelled to Redfern from other suburbs. The Redfern Waterloo Authority plans include a proposal to rebuild the bridge for foot and cycle to re-connect the Australian Technology Park with North Eveleigh, as well as all these with the refurbished Redfern Station and new town centre. This would be a welcome and important step in allowing walking access to the precinct incorporating the concept of a park or rail tourist centre, and linking with the renewed Redfern Station and town centre.

Works Manager’s Office ATP (HI 3).

This heritage-listed building is an impressive edifice as one enters the Australian Technology site from the eastern side of Redfern station or the parks at the city end of the complex. Very little effort has been made by the current or former management of this site to link it to its former role in the production and maintenance of Australia’s (not just NSW’s) steam locomotive fleet for 100 years. This together with the larger more accessible New Locomotive Workshop (ATP) 10 metres away are areas rich in the history of the site, but no attempt has been made to use either of the buildings to introduce the visitor to the site’s historical functions.

New Locomotive Workshop (ATP) (HI 2).

            A small section of this workshop has a stand of old hand washing basins installed in the 1950’s which has been kept as a connection with Eveleigh’s industrial past.  But even here the story of Eveleigh’s rich history of workers’ struggle for decent conditions is ignored or misrepresented. Nowhere can be found the most common washing facility issued to workers on the site for almost 70 years “a metal bucket.”

The New Locomotive Workshop became the first office space of the Australian Technology Park that was to provide the Australian people with an introduction to modern industrial technology. Those people who were aware of the significant role that steam played in Australia’s industrial development welcome this plan feeling that the management of this park would very quickly link the site’s future with its past. Within these New Loco walls Australians constructed locomotives that proved to the world they could match overseas manufacturing. This so far has not been demonstrated by the current management of this site.

Courtyard (between HI 2 and 1).

Leaving the New Locomotive Workshop we step out into a very pleasant tree lined courtyard that features a single shunting engine that once worked in the location. At the western end of this court yard a working railway line remains that currently allows access to the area from the old running shed location down as far as the Works Managers Office.  If this courtyard is to act as a display area of modern technical railway equipment or heritage live steam technology this line must be retained. Not to do so would also affect Eveleigh’s capacity to assemble tourist trains that could operate in, out and around Sydney, an important consideration for future tourism.  

The Locomotive Workshops (ATP) (HI 1).

Entering this heritage building from the courtyard we come to one of the original jewels in the Redfern Railway Precinct heritage crown. This by the way is not mentioned specifically in the list of 12 buildings that might be kept. Here we find, in several bays of dirt floor, part of the old heart of Eveleigh. These bays contain the blacksmith and spring-smith working bays of the locomotive workshop.  This heritage working area dates back to the 1880’s and contains working steam equipment that remains in the same working condition it was in when the steam to the area was turned off twenty years ago. The tragic stripping of these heritage workshops that occurred in the 1980’s would be repeated if the future of this heritage location is not addressed soon in the Redfern Waterloo project plans for the Locomotive Workshop.

A short walk further into the heart of the Locomotive Workshop area that is now already mainly business offices and organizations of the type expected to be attracted to the recycled building shell.  It is very hard to find any displays that tell a story about this site’s history. The viewers, at the moment, must remind themselves that this Eveleigh location was one of the most advanced steam engineering operations in the world.  Walking towards the Large Erecting Shop the visitor at the moment comes across a few scattered machines that were a feature of the old Eveleigh machine shop.  This display of machines from about 9 to 13 bay of the old workshop again fails to capture the overall spirit and heritage value of this location.  While the individual machines are documented with some of their background, no details of the machine shop like the overhead drive shafts, belt and pulleys that were a feature of how a steam powered machine shop functioned, are displayed. Without such an image no-one under 50 could grasp the heritage value of this area or what part these machines played in it.

The heritage value of this machinery is not confined to its technical features. This machinery was used through two World Wars to support Australia’s armed services and is a story in itself.  Nor can one find at the moment any details of the social struggle that touched the nation that occurred in these old walls. Ben Chifley, future  Prime Minister and then engine driver was a regular visitor to this site, and during one of his working runs made contact with the army of Eveleigh workers and carried the news back to Bathurst of the 1917 Railway strike. The social impact of this strike on Australians like Ben Chifley was immense.

And as Lucy Taksa [3]observed:

…Eveleigh reflects our history of democratic citizenship. Here we have an environment - a heritage place - which has links to the election of the earliest railway workers to the NSW Parliament in the 1880s and early 1890s; a place that spawned at least 25 Members of parliament (state and federal) three  NSW premiers and one Governor-general. Here too workers joined together, as far back as the early 1930s, to promote better treatment of and citizenship rights for our long-disenfranchised Indigenous Australians. They campaigned against the loss of tribal lands during the Maralinga (nuclear bomb) experiments in the 1950s, against the death sentence upon Aborigine, Rupert Max Stuart and in support of Albert Namatjira when he was gaoled. The site was also significant for its employment of women as munitions workers during WW2 and also as industrial nurses.

Large Erecting Shed (South Eveleigh) (HI 4).

Our walk around the 12 heritage sites continues up through the machine shop area of the old Locomotive Workshops to the Large Erecting Shed. It was here that many of NSW’s largest locomotives were built, stripped and re-assembled after repairs.  Today it is associated with the preservation and operation of Locomotive 3801 and several other historical locomotives.  To call it a shed down plays its size and value as it contains two cranes that are capable of lifting between them locomotives of 200 tonnes.The general heritage value of this part of the 12 heritage sites is well described by the National Trust of Australia who have listed various parts of the Eveleigh site under their heritage charter. [4]

To round off this brief look at the listed locations it should be mentioned that the area south of the Erecting Shed is important to consider if a service for operating steam tourist trains in and out of the Sydney area is to remain a relative simple operation. It is true steam locomotives can be serviced by such organizations as the fire brigade pumping local water and a coal truck to supply fuel but the facilities to properly water and service steam locomotives is currently available only in this area and should be maintained as part of the heritage features of Eveleigh.

Conclusion

One major criticism of the government’s short-sighted approach to the Eveleigh complex is that it does not recognise the importance of one of the very few locations that the tourist to Sydney can reach in a short time during their stay. There has been no serious public study of the potential for Railway cultural tourism, other than the excellent papers and discussion at the Tamworth Railway Heritage Conference in 2005[5].  RailCorp and the Transport Ministry are probably not the organisations to conduct such a study as their interests have been diverted by current rail problems. The possible loss of some of the steam heritage features of Eveleigh at the moment (in the rush to transfer responsibility for the site) could lead to a situation where no tourist heritage trains can operate in or out of the Sydney Area. 

The tourist and cultural potential for the site requires an overall approach by several Government Ministries even to see the economic value other than that proposed by building developers[6].  The new Performing Arts Theatre would have a much greater guarantee of success if it were integrated with a real technology park exhibition interlocked with exhibitions of the area’s historical associations.

The acrimonious public dispute centred on the fate of the Large Erecting Shed and the possible demise of Locomotive 3801 cannot be separated from a broader rail heritage debate about Eveleigh in general and touching on the whole debate about ‘Ugly Sydney’ set off by the more civic-minded editorial staff of the Sydney Morning Herald.