SPRING HILL STATION
Springhill is a small township between Bathurst and Orange, in country New South Wales. In the middle of 1988 I happened to drive through Springhill. I noticed the old railway station that was situated at the top end of the main street. The railway had reached the town by the late 1870s and in 1884 the station building had been completed.
Fence being erected around Spring Hill Station in 1988 [photo: © Jim Low]
On nearing the station I saw that a couple of men were busily engaged in the construction of a wire fence around the station site. Since 1988 was Australia’s bicentennial year, I assumed that the fence was being erected to protect the site while restoration work was carried out on the building. This must be Springhill’s bicentennial project, I conjectured. So I stopped to enquire and also to ask permission to take photographs of the old station. What a disappointment to learn that the fence was being built to signal the start of the building’s demolition. The railway had again passed another town and evidence of its existence was being removed.
Springhill Station being demolished [photo: © Jim Low]
I took my photographs but my initial, optimistic spirit was gone. Later that night I wrote the following lines in my diary.CHANCE VISIT
Springhill Railway Station
| When the railway came You were built And proudly you stood A belief in future prosperity You sheltered the waiting traveller I bet your fires always warmly glowed And smoke gushed from your chimneys Comforting, until departure In a roar of engine The clang and clash of metal And his of steam You welcomed the homesick traveller When you were the journey’s end. |
And now today Broken and bruised by time and human hands I stop to take a photograph And ask the men who built around you wire walls Are you being restored? A knowing smile: ‘No mane, she’s coming down.’ So on film I capture some final moments I cross your life line that has now passed you by I know we can’t keep everything, I know. |
I didn’t wait to see you die At Millthorpe, nearby 25-6-88 |
Curiosity occasioned my return to Springhill before the end of 1988. The only evidence remaining of the station were the ghostly foundation markings on the ground where it had stood. Even they were disappearing in the long grass.
Station foundations [photo: © Jim Low]
I have visited Springhill a number of times over the years. Driving through Springhill on my way to Millthorpe, in December 2009, I was intrigued to discover that the local council had erected an information sign. Positioned on the roadside adjacent to the former station, the sign included a photograph of the station. Accompanying text informed the passer-by that a railway station had been there in the past. I could not help sarcastically mouthing the words ‘I know that’ and again lamenting the old station’s demise. It’s all just memory!
Sign marking the site of the former station building [photo: © Jim Low]
But what are we really remembering when we reflect on Springhill railway station? Is it the importance of the railway in the history of this region or could it perhaps be the needless destruction of an historic building that could have been given a new life? After all, the neighbouring township of Millthorpe was able to repurpose its former railway station. And it provides the traveller with a good idea of what Springhill station looked like, since they were identical buildings.
disused train line and Springhill Station platform [photo: © Jim Low]
Two years after my first visit to Springhill in 1988, I developed the previously quoted, rudimentary lines from my diary into a song.© Jim Low
