Early history of Southern Cross Station
Southern Cross Station is due to celebrate its 150th anniversary this decade. The station, formally known as Spencer Street Station, is synonymous with the rise of rail transport in Victoria and has been redeveloped as a world-class public transport interchange.
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Waiting for business. PROV, Public Transport Corporation Photographic Collection, H1495, looking north-west along Spencer Street, showing corner of old railway administration building |
'Marvellous' years
The history of the station mirrors the State's regional development and that of Melbourne itself, especially during the city's formative and 'Marvellous' years to the end of the 19th century. As the car gained dominance in transport, railway stations around the world gradually declined in significance and became overlooked.
Today however, the newly named Southern Cross Station remains vitally important to passenger movements in rural and regional Victoria and beyond. The station's future looks bright with the $700 million redevelopment to cater for Victoria's future population growth.
The early days
Passenger services from Spencer Street Station – originally called Batman's Hill Railway Station – began in 1859. A public holiday was declared so the public could witness the departure of the first train to Williamstown on 13 January.
Batman's Hill, a pleasant and wooded knoll on the north bank of the Yarra, west of Spencer Street, was an historic site in the early European settlement of Victoria. In 1835 Batman and Fawkner established the city of Melbourne, and Batman built a home at the foot of the hill.
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Concourse shops. PROV, Public Transport Corporation Photographic Collection, F2056, Concourse shops. |
Batman's Hill formed part of the boundaries of the general terminus developed in the 1850s for the railway companies. When the area was taken over by the government in 1856, it became the Melbourne terminus of the (new) Victorian Railways, and the area immediately adjacent to the new station became the site for a range of industrial developments.
By the 1860s, with increased suburban and Geelong traffic, Spencer Street Station needed major alterations and improvements but the cost was too high and major changes were deferred.
In 1874 major rebuilding was again proposed (and rejected), but in the following years new goods and engine sheds and another passenger platform were constructed.
Spencer Street Station to 1915
The years of expansion
The 1880s are considered by many to have been the most important decade in the development of railways in Australia.
In those 10 years, the colonies of Victoria (with Spencer Street as the hub), Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia were linked by regular services.
Melbourne hosted a great international Exhibition (in the magnificent Exhibition Building on the eastern edge of the city) in 1888 prompting an early move into tourism by Victorian Railways. Assuming visitors to the Exhibition would want to see more of Victoria, an "Inquiry Office" was established at Spencer Street station to dispense information on – and handle bookings for – holiday destinations in the State.
A major development in the early 1890s was the completion of a viaduct linking Spencer Street and Flinders Street stations. Traffic was confined to goods trains for the first three years and passenger traffic began moving between the two stations at the end of 1894.
At this time, too, the ornate Railway Administrative Building at the corner of Spencer and Flinders Streets was completed. Its size and architecture are testimony to the importance attached to the railways in those times. When it opened it was the largest office building in Melbourne.
As part of the works associated with the electrification of the Melbourne metropolitan rail system, the viaduct was duplicated in 1915, providing four tracks between Spencer Street and Flinders Street.
Images reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia.