City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2Figure 13Fairfield TrainStation, lookingeast towardsIvanhoe, c1910[DHE, ID 635]Eventually Darebin’s train travellers got their direct link with the city. The Heidelberg line wastaken through Collingwood to Princes Bridge Station in 1901. In 1904 a small section of trackknown as the Northcote loop was constructed to directly connect the Preston and Whittlesealine to Clifton Hill, taking the line to Princes Bridge. Subsequently, Northcote Station wasrenamed Merri Station, while Middle Northcote Station became Northcote Station. A newstation, Rushall, was built on the Fitzroy side of the Northcote loop, with a footbridge givingaccess from Westgarth.Twentieth century improvementsAs noted above, the lack of a railway had retarded suburban development in Darebin duringthe 1880s boom, but improved facilities began to bring new development into the area. As thepopulation in Darebin increased new buildings were erected during the first decades of thetwentieth century at the busiest stations including Fairfield, Merri, Northcote, Thornbury andBell.At the start of World War One the Victorian Railways embarked on a massive program toelectrify the suburban railway network but the program was delayed by the onset of war anddid not get underway in earnest until after 1918. In 1921 the Whittlesea line was electrified asfar as Reservoir while the Hurstbridge line was electrified to Heidelberg in the same year. Theelectrified railways sped up the journey to the city considerably and ran at more frequentintervals thus encouraging a new wave of suburban development in areas such as Alphingtonand Reservoir which had remained undeveloped up to that time.The electric service on the Whittlesea line was extended to Thomastown (outside Darebin) viaa single track in 1929 and a new station was added at Keon Park on Preston’s northern border.Thomastown was the limit of the suburban system until 1959 when the line was electrified asfar as Lalor and the country section to Whittlesea beyond was closed – the line betweenReservoir and Keon Park was also duplicated at that time. In 1963 a new station was added atRuthven between Reservoir and Keon Park.3.3 Travelling by tram and busHorse drawn tramsThe earliest tramway through Darebin, and possibly Victoria’s earliest, was built in 1853 totransport materials for the building of the Yan Yean reservoir, but it was a temporary line only.In 1884 land developer, C.H. James, built a horse tramway along Station Street, Fairfield andran it on sale days to help promote his Rossmoyne Park other estates. The Collingwood Mercuryproclaimed it as Victoria’s first tram, but there had been horse trams operating in Melbourne asearly as 1873 (Lemon, 1983:87; Victorian Year Book 1973:1135).Cable tramsIn the mid 1880s, the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Co. began running cable trams inMelbourne and inner suburbs. The trams were pulled along by a constantly moving36