Phil Buckley's travels: RAILWAYS DOWN SOUTH PART 7

April 2011 - After Tumut/Batlow, i ventured north to Gundagai, having done some research on what to expect. I arrived late afternoon and came across a wonderful railway site and what looked to be nearly fully restored and extremely well maintained. I had arranged to meet the President of the group as i was interested to learn more about the museum. I got a full tour and shown around until late at night. I then came back next morning and spent around few hrs at the museum examining it in detail.

The railway station dates from 1886 and the line was closed in 1984 due to flooding and costs. The station nearly got demolished in 1990 by the state government but at last minute a local Gundagai group GHBI took over and restoration has been ongoing since then. Most work was done in 1990s-mid 2000s with platform and building restoration by volunteers.

Neatly 20years on the museum is open to the general public and attracts many people every year and growing. Weddings, groups and international tourists are some of the inbound tourists.

The Gundagai railway station is currently the longest railway station made from timber building in NSW remaining from its era and as such is heritage listed.

A signal box and water tank are also present around the station in the yard. A turntable is missing, the large goods shed is intact and overall the railway yard is mostly intact with ground frames and railway track. Signals are seen at both ends of the railway yard.

Various displays are seen in the museum rooms and in yard. Rollingstock is displayed and includes a S truck goods wagon and a FHG guards van on the railway line.

With my visit i came away with a idea to encourage the locals to work with me to make the museum into a premier tourist attraction with improvements. After 6months in late 2011, i managed to gain the support and had a committee formed, which will now work solely on improving the museum into the future to attract more tourism. Many improvements are being planned.

Part of the work i have done since my visit in May is create a new webpage as they didnt have a online site , did media interviews and conducted research on a variety of areas for the museum.
I regularly visit every few weeks and attend management meeting as a heritage adviser on the project. It is definitely a museum with great potential i can see to expand and the hope is longer term , to restore the railway branch line towards Coolac and run some form of a tourist train with passengers.

More can be seen at the Gundagai Railway Museum webpage - http://gundagairailwaymuseum.wordpress.com

Station building