South Gippsland Railway Line - Lang Lang River Bridge

The Lang Lang River Bridge is a lovely example of an all timber trestle bridge. It stands high over the Lang Lang River and appears to be in quite good condition, although the refuge half way across has fallen away. It is quite safe to cross by foot, so I was able to measure its length at 83 Metres, with 16 openings. It is an easy hike back along the ROW from the crossing in Westernport Road in the shopping centre of Lang Lang, only 800 Metres, and worth a visit if you like old wooden bridges.

View along the deck.

View from South Eastern corner, looking along the approach spans in Up direction.

Arty-farty view through the middle of the trestles. I should have grabbed manual focus.

The central trestles over the river. The remnants of the refuge supports can be seen up at deck level.

Looking back at the approach from down end.

Marking on the bridge pile at the Down end, north pile.

Marking on the bridge pile at the Down end, south pile.

South Gippsland Railway Line - Caldermeade Station Site

The Caldermeade Station Site is bare, nothing left to see of the station. However there is a small ruined building there, and the leaseholder of the land says it was still standing when he took on the lease the land. His story is that it was the milking shed used by the Station Master for milking his small herd of cows. The owner said the SM, when made redundant by the closure of the station, went off and began a dairy in Melbourne that later became Pura Dairies. A quick check of the Pura history reveals there is probably no basis to this story however.

He said that on taking on the lease of the land, he was told he would have to take out insurance for the building with a clause to cover glass. It never had any glass in the windows.

It might have been a milking shed, but how would you tell these days?

South Gippsland Railway Line - Bridge At 27.21 Km

The Bridge At 27.21 Km, last in the group of 3 culvert bridges near Caldermeade.

This one is a little easier to see. The openings are just high enough for the cattle to cross under the line.

Closer view, 18 sections.

South Gippsland Railway Line - Bridge At 26.76 Km

The Bridge At 26.76 Km, again another concrete culvert type, and like those on either side, it has 18 openings. Located 26.76 Km from Cranbourne.

Stand back folks!, nothing to see. Well, a good grass fire would fix it... I am going to need a quadcopter for getting photos if I encounter more of this long grass.

South Gippsland Railway Line - Bridge At 26.28 Km

The Bridge At 26.28 Km is yet another boring bridge, having been replaced by concrete culverts. I met the farmer who now owns the land either side of the ROW. He had stored a pile of old tyres at the Up end to use for hold-down weights on his silage piles. He had been amazed that the railways replaced all the bridges with culverts so close in time to the closure of the line. Located 26.28 Km from Cranbourne.

Hard to see the bridge due to long grass. The tyres are weights to hold down the cover over stored silage feed, they are not dumped there.

South Gippsland Railway Line - Yallock River Bridge

The Yallock River Bridge is almost adjacent to the Yallock Creek, but is a more substantial bridge, concrete piers, steel spans and concrete deck. I could not get access to the far end, as the land is privately owned by the Monomeith Stud, and they are very protective of their property, which is quite understandable when you consider they agist race horses.

Also the blackberries were too thick to cross. I will go back again at a later time, better equipped to get to the far side. I have no idea of the length or number of spans. It is located 24.56 kms from Cranbourne station.

View from South East corner.

View from North East corner.

View across the bridge from Down end, looking in the Up direction.

South Gippsland Railway Line - Yallock Creek Bridge

The Yallock Creek Bridge is yet another bridge that has been replaced by concrete culvert sections. It is in a very difficult to reach spot, I had to walk through the recycled water plant, climb barbed wire fences and beat down blackberries to get to it. There are 13 openings in the bridge, and one of them had been occupied when I got there, see photo. Located 23.90 kms from Cranbourne.

Another concrete culvert replacement of an original wooden bridge.

 

Shot of deck taken from down end looking up.

Interesting camp site, you would have to wonder why someone would bother to get into such a hard to access place. I suddenly realised that the person camping here may be trying very hard not to be found, so I beat a hasty retreat.

South Gippsland Railway Line - Bridge at 11.22 Km

The bridge at 11.22 Km is right on the intersection of the rail line, Manks Road and the quaintly named Muddy Gates Lane. It is situated 11.22 Km from Cranbourne station. Manks Road originally had a deviation at this point to allow a straight crossing of the line, but the track has now been removed and the road straightened. The old road bridge can be seen immediately south of the rail bridge.

The bridge is of all-wooden construction, 6 short spans. It appears to be in good condition.

 

Looking back towards Clyde over the bridge.

Looking towards Tooradin Station, about 1.8 Km away, with the now expected barrier across the line.

South Gippsland Railway Line - Bridge at 9.65 Km

Bridge at 9.65 Km is at the foot of the Clyde Bank, over a small drain. It is of all-wooden construction, but a heavy infestation of blackberries prevented getting a good photograph of it. The blackberries have been sprayed and are dead, but that makes it no easier. This is the first bridge on the South Gippsland Line after Cranbourne. It is in very poor condition.

The bridge foundations appear to be in good condition, the line has sunken either side, but the deck is rotten. It is not protected by signs as it is inaccessible and remote.

Looking back towards Clyde, up the bank. A huge woof in the line at this point, not sure as to whether it is heat related (the line has long welded lengths) or a washaway.

Looking back towards Clyde from the foot of the bank. The vegetation prevents us from getting a long view of the bank.

Koo Wee Rup to Strzelecki Branch - Bayles Station

Bayles Station is not the building shown here, in fact all that remains of the former station are a few small platform timbers, this building is simply a shed placed on the site of the station. The site is now inside the Bayles Fauna Park.

Shows the simulated station building. There appears to be little left of the original infrastructure.

 

View of the ROW as it heads towards the (missing) bridges over the Number Four Drain.

 

South Gippsland Railway Line - Bridge At 23.10 Km.

Bridge At 23.10 Km. is a long span culvert bridge across a low section of ground that is flood prone.

A low concrete deck, cast concrete culvert style bridge at the 23.10 Km mark from Cranbourne. It is approximately 120 Metres long, over a low section of the swamp  that is prone to flooding. Interesting that a  housing development nearby is not protected from flood waters in any way. The old line to Strzelecki curves away to the left of this shot.

 

View down the bridge. On the way there, on the sanitized, concrete paved path, I stumbled across a huge dog poo that did not have warning cones or Danger - Slippery Surface signs to warn me of the danger. But all the bridges now have solid steel gates with signs say No Unauthorised Access. I wonder who can authorise access? One gate can be seen at the far end of the bridge. I guess they do effectively prevent use of private trolleys.

 

 

South Gippsland Railway Line - Koo Wee Rup Station

Koo Wee Rup Station platform is now a very sad sight. The nanny state has decided it is too dangerous to be left accessible to the public and has fenced it off.

I wonder if they will restore it or destroy it? Seems pointless to keep it, as there is no station building or any other structure other than the platform itself.

South Gippsland Railway Line - Six Pack Of Bridges

Six Pack Of Bridges across a drainage channel that aggregates four creeks into a single channel. The four, Cardinia, Gum Scrub, Toomuc and Deep Creek, are crossed by six bridges, at the 17.68 Km point from Cranbourne. The amount of scrub and blackberries make it quite difficult to get to vantage points for good photos. The creeks are also tidal at this point, being less than 3 Km from Westernport Bay and some channels are lined with mangroves.

A simple 4 opening bridge with timber trestles and cast concrete deck. This is the nearest bridge to Cranbourne.

 

Of 9 openings, also timber trestles with cast concrete deck. Note the mangroves at water level.

 

A small 3 opening all-timber trestle.

 

The longest bridge in the group. I was not able to determine the actual number of openings due to the inaccessible  nature of  the centre section.

 

View across bridge number 4. It remains one single bridge even though it crosses two waterways.

 

This bridge has 9 openings, timber trestles with a mixture of wooden deck and cast concrete deck components.

 

4 openings, timber trestle with cast concrete decks.

South Gippsland Railway Line - The Bridge At Dalmore Road

The Bridge At Dalmore Road is a bit the worse for wear, and I was not keen to walk across it, as the decking was quite rotten. It is located at the 16.05 Km mark from Cranbourne Station.

Two trestle wooden bridge with wooden deck over a drainage ditch adjacent to Dalmore Road.

South Gippsland Railway Line - The Bridge At 15.0 Km.

The Bridge At 15.0 Km. is beside Peers Road, crossing a drainage channel. It is a 5 span culvert type concrete bridge. The track has been cut just on the eastern side of the bridge to allow vehicular access to a paddock beyond, and curiously, that access is shown on maps as Adams Road, although plainly, no such road exists. It is located 15.0 Kms from Cranbourne.

The bridge has 5 spans of inverted concrete culvert design with abutments cast in concrete.

 

Shows the tracks disappearing into the scrub and blackberries. The channel is slightly tidal still at this point, evidenced by an upstream flow as the tide came in.

 

 

The track has been cut, and in this view we are looking towards the down direction. The track has clearly subsided over the years.

 

South Gippsland Railway Line - Tooradin Station

Tooradin Station was never much of a station, more of a halt, although in the early days this was the terminus of the line before it was extended further east. But now there is little to suggest a station may ever have occupied this site. The Cypress trees are the only reminder, as they seemed to often be planted at railway stations. The bridge was about 100 metres past the station at distance 13.29 kms from Cranbourne.

There is nothing left at the former station site, just a slightly raised section of earth where the platform once stood. This shot is taken looking in the down direction towards Koo Wee Rup.

A small wooden trestle bridge over a drain at the eastern end of the Tooradin station, just before the line crosses the Tooradin Station Road.

South Gippsland Railway Line - Bunyip River - A Further Brace of Bridges

Bunyip River - A Further Brace of Bridges is another collection of bridges, this time over the Bunyip River, which at this point has morphed into its alternate name of Main Drain. They are just on the outskirts of the township of Koo Wee Rup, on the Melbourne side, at a distance of 21.04 km from Cranbourne Railway Station. There are six bridges, the first encountered is of wooden trestle construction, The next two are timber decked iron girders on concrete piers with concrete abutments, the fourth bridge, the longest, is of timber span and trestle construction with a central iron span. This bridge crosses the major waterway.

The last two are cast concrete culvert types over smaller water channels. The sixth bridge is actually across a separate drain called Boundary Drain that joins the main channel at this point.

The Victorian Blackberry Growers Co-op, AKA The Railways, have finally been spraying, but not enough to clear the tracks, A view across 5 of the bridges.

 

The smallest of the 6 bridges, a small wooden trestle type.

 

 

A bridge of iron girders on concrete piers with a timber deck. The sign at right of frame said Gunzels Strictly Prohibited

 

Another bridge of iron girders on concrete piers with a timber deck.

 

This is a the largest of the 6 bridges, mostly a traditional timber trestle bridge, but with an iron centre span.

 

The first of two cast concrete culvert type bridges.

 

The second of two cast concrete culvert type bridges, over Boundary Drain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Royston Mill near Royston Power Station

Ron Welsh sent me some photos taken by his son Daniel, and I contacted Peter Evans for some background on the mill. Peter kindly sent some information and an earlier photo of the mill. Thank you to Ron, Daniel and Peter for this item.

Peter writes: "The only remaining sawmill in the Rubicon Forest is owned by the SEC and is located near the Royston power station.  It was built after the 1939 fires to cut bridge timbers and scantling for use by the SEC for construction and maintenance purposes.  Around 1946-47, it was enlarged and made more weather-proof.  Powered by electricity, the mill incorporates many parts salvaged from other mills after the 1939 fire – for example, the large cast-iron saw sharpening stand was originally from the No.1 mill.  (Rails to Rubicon, page 173)

A couple of years ago the Alexandra Timber Tramway undertook a project for the Department of 'many changing names' and several new uprights were put into the mill to stop it falling down.  A new enclosure for the saw sharpening marchine was built, and the place generally tidied up."

 

This photo from Peter was taken in 1947 and shows the mill in use. The SEC electric tram is shown parked outside the mill. The mill itself is only a short distance from Royston Power Station.

Photo by Frank Aplin, Peter Evans collection.

The interior of the mill as it is today. The saw blade has presumably been removed for safety.

Photo by Daniel Welsh.

The electric motor for the saw which is contained in a small room at the rear of the mill.

Photo by Daniel Welsh.

View from the South end of the mill.

Photo by Daniel Welsh.

Looking into the mill from a position close to the tram line.

Photo by Daniel Welsh.

View from the aqueduct crossing looking North.

Photo by Daniel Welsh.

View from the same position looking South.

Photo by Daniel Welsh.