Yeppoon railway station facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Yeppoon railway station |
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Yeppoon Station, circa 1991
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| Location | James Street, Yeppoon, Shire of Livingstone, Queensland, Australia |
| Official name: Yeppoon Station Building | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 18 April 2008 |
| Reference no. | 602563 |
| Significant period | 1900s |
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The Yeppoon railway station is a historic train station located on James Street in Yeppoon, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 2008 because of its special importance.
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History of the Yeppoon Railway
In 1867, people living in Rockhampton wanted a beach town nearby. They asked for a new town to be created on the coast. Yeppoon, first called "Bald Hills", became a town reserve in 1868. It was meant as a holiday spot for Rockhampton. For many years, it was hard to get to Yeppoon. The first proper road was built in 1878.
Yeppoon had a rival holiday town, Emu Park. Rich business people from Rockhampton built holiday homes there. Both towns were among the first seaside resorts in Queensland.
Farmers and settlers were the first to develop the Yeppoon area. The first land was sold in 1873. Yeppoon town was in a low area and could get swampy when it rained a lot. The Yeppoon Sugar Plantation was a big business, but it struggled because there were no good roads or railways. Yeppoon had more rain and better soil than Rockhampton or Emu Park. This made it a good farming area.
In the early 1880s, more people became interested in Yeppoon. More land was sold, and the town started to grow.
Early Railways in Queensland
The first railway line in the region opened in 1867. It went from Rockhampton to Westwood, about 50 kilometres away. This line was later extended further west. It reached Emerald in 1879 and Longreach in 1892. For a long time, this railway system was separate from others in Queensland. It connected to southern Queensland railways only in 1903.
In Brisbane, a railway line to Sandgate was finished in 1882. This gave city people easy access to the beach. Many old seaside stations like this have been taken down. Yeppoon is one of the few that still stands.
Building the Emu Park and Yeppoon Lines
After the success of the Sandgate line, Rockhampton residents with holiday homes in Emu Park wanted a railway too. Their requests worked! A railway line from North Rockhampton railway station to Emu Park was approved in 1885. It opened in December 1888. This line started at North Rockhampton because building a bridge over the Fitzroy River was too expensive.
The Emu Park railway carried holidaymakers. It also served the Lakes Creek Meatworks and gold mines. This railway helped Emu Park become a very popular holiday spot. In 1899, a new bridge, the Alexandra Railway Bridge, connected the Emu Park line to the main Rockhampton station.
People in Yeppoon and the Sugar Plantation wanted the railway extended to their town. Without it, train travellers had to go to Tanby and then take a coach to Yeppoon. Surveys for a rail line to Yeppoon were done in 1890 and 1900. The extension was approved. The first part opened in November 1908 to carry workers and supplies to Mount Chalmers. The rest of the 27 kilometres to Yeppoon opened on 20 December 1909. This was just in time for the Christmas holidays! The official opening was on 21 January 1910 by the Queensland Governor, Sir William MacGregor.
The passenger station, engine shed, and carriage shed were built in 1909. A room for parcels and luggage was added in 1910. By 1943, the station complex also had a goods shed, a station master's house, and quarters for guards and drivers.
The Railway's Impact on Yeppoon
The first train from Rockhampton to Yeppoon carried 128 passengers. On Boxing Day in 1910, 700 people went to the traditional races on Yeppoon Beach. Large group picnics brought full trains to Yeppoon on weekends. In 1924, 3,500 railway workers had a picnic on the beach. The train made travel to Yeppoon much cheaper than coaches. This brought fast growth to the town.
Yeppoon became more popular than Emu Park. It was seen as more welcoming. The train was the main way to travel to Yeppoon until after World War 2.
The Yeppoon railway station was built about one kilometre from the beach. This was not for holidaymakers. It was for handling freight, like cattle. Its location did not stop people from "meeting the train." This was a tradition, just like meeting the coach. People would dress up for the train's arrival.
Pineapples became a very important crop in the area. They were the main freight carried by the railway. In 1953, a cannery opened in Rockhampton. Pineapples were sent there by train. Later, they were sent to a cannery in Northgate using special wagons.
Girls' boarding schools opened in Yeppoon in 1917 and 1923. This allowed families from western Queensland to send their daughters directly to Yeppoon by train. During World War II, when a Japanese invasion seemed possible, one school was moved to Barcaldine by rail in 1942. Students, beds, desks, and books were all sent west by train.
About 70,000 American troops were in the Rockhampton area during World War II. They mostly moved by road. However, soldiers on leave used the train. On 20 September 1942, all seaside trains from Rockhampton were cancelled. The railway lines and trains were needed to move troops to New Guinea.
Decline and Closure
The most passengers the station ever had was in 1950, with 40,083 people. After World War 2, more people owned cars. The road between Rockhampton and Yeppoon also got better. Because of this, fewer people travelled by train.
In 1964, the train service to Emu Park closed, and its station was taken down. In the same year, weekday services to Yeppoon used smaller rail cars. Passenger services stopped completely in the 1970s. The railway line was still the best way for holiday travel from the west to Yeppoon until the 1970s.
Since then, the line has been used only sometimes for freight or special tourist trips. In 2004, Queensland Rail announced that pineapples would be moved by road instead. The Yeppoon line would be closed and taken apart. By mid-2007, work began to remove the rails, sleepers, and other parts of the railway.
What the Yeppoon Station Looks Like
The station building is on the north side of James Street. It is at the western end of the main shopping area.
The passenger station is a long building with a pointed roof. It has a corrugated iron roof and square gutters. On the street side, the roof extends out to create shade. This shade is held up by wooden posts. There are also large, fancy wooden brackets under the roof edges. The building is low to the ground and sits on concrete stumps.
Concrete steps lead up to the doorways. There is a small wooden landing next to a boarded-up window. Some original wooden doors are still there. The door to the ticket and freight office has been changed to a sliding door. The windows have four small glass panes.
On the platform side, there is a curved shade area. It is supported by wooden posts with plain supports and concrete bases. A section on the eastern end is closed off with wooden slats. This area is used for storing a forklift. The platform itself has concrete edges. It is made of packed soil covered with blue metal gravel. There is a single wooden bench seat on the platform with "YEPPOON" written on it. Two similar seats are on the street side of the building. At each end of the building, a dark green wooden sign sticks out from the wall. It has raised beige letters that spell "YEPPOON."
Inside the Station Building
The ticket and freight office is at the western end of the building. It is a large rectangular room. The walls and ceiling are covered with wooden boards. There are cupboards built into the western wall. This room has a mix of old and new furniture. Two wooden doors open to the platform. There are also windows that open to the platform and to the street.
Next to the ticket office is the former waiting room. It is enclosed on the platform side by wooden slats. It has a window that opens to the ticket office.
The parcels room is a large open space. It has double wooden doors in the middle that open to the outside on both sides. The western wall has four shelves. The roof and walls are covered with wooden boards. The floor is made of wooden boards.
At the eastern end of the building are the male and female toilets. Their doors open to the platform side.
Why Yeppoon Station is Important
The Yeppoon Station Building was added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 2008. This means it is a very important historical site.
It shows how Queensland's history developed. Yeppoon Railway Station is important because it shows how Queensland grew. It was the end of a railway line that opened in 1909. It is a key reminder of the train service to a seaside resort. People from Rockhampton and all over Central West Queensland used this train to visit Yeppoon. The railway also helped the coast develop. It served mines, farms, schools, and cattle stations in the area. It was especially important for making Yeppoon a place where girls' boarding schools could serve students from Central Queensland. It reminds us of a time when trains were a big part of taking people on day trips to the beach.
It shows rare or endangered parts of Queensland's culture. The Yeppoon station building is important because it is one of the few seaside resort stations that still exists and is mostly unchanged. Other similar stations have been taken down. The earth platform it sits on is also rare in Queensland.
