Redfern railway station

Redfern railway station is a heritage-listed former railway bridge and now railway station located on the Main Suburban railway line in the Inner City Sydney suburb of Redfern in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Whitton and built by Department of Railways. It is also known as Redfern Railway Station group and Tenterfield railway. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The station that opened on 26 September 1855 is located on what was originally the Illawarra line. It is now served by all Sydney Trains lines except the Cumberland Line and the airport branch of the Airport & South Line. Some NSW TrainLink Intercity services also call at the station.
Redfern's natural landscape was defined by sand hills and swamps. The Carrahdigang, more widely known as the Cadigal people, valued the area for its abundant supply of food.
The name Redfern originates from an early land grant to William Redfern in 1817. It was previously known as Roberts Farm and Boxley's Swamp. William Redfern (1774–1833) was a surgeon's mate in the Royal Navy and was aboard HMS Standard when its crew took part in the revolt in 1797 known as the Mutiny of the Nore. Because he had advised the men to be more united, he was included among leaders who were court-martialled. Although sentenced to death, he was reprieved because of his youth and in 1801 arrived in Sydney as a convict. He served on Norfolk Island as an assistant surgeon. In 1803 he was pardoned, but remained on the island until 1808, when he returned to Sydney and was appointed assistant surgeon after being examined in medicine and surgery by Surgeons Jamison, Harris and Bohan.
In 1816, he took charge of the new Sydney Hospital, but maintained a private practice. In 1814 he reported on conditions on convict transport ships and his recommendation that all have a surgeon on board whose duties were to superintend the health of convicts was put into practice. He resigned from Government service in 1819 when not appointed to succeed D'Arcy Wentworth as principal surgeon. Despite his valuable service, many were contemptuous of him as he was an emancipist, although he had the friendship of Governor Macquarie. In 1818 Redfern received a grant of 526 hectares (1,300 acres) in Airds (in today's Campbelltown area) and later received more land in the area and by his death in 1823 he owned, by grant and purchase, over 9,308 hectares (23,000 acres) in NSW.
In 1817, he had been granted 40 hectares (100 acres) in the area of the present suburb of Redfern. The boundaries were approximately the present-day Cleveland, Regent, Redfern and Elizabeth Streets. The commodious home Redfern built on his land was considered to be a country house, surrounded by flower and kitchen gardens. His neighbours were John Baptist (at the 16-hectare (40-acre) Darling Nursery in today's Chippendale) and Captain Cleveland, an officer of the 73rd regiment, remembered by today's street of that name, and before its demolition, by Cleveland House, his home.
The passing of the Sydney Slaughterhouses Act in 1849 brought other businesses to the district. This act banned abattoirs and noxious trades from the city. Tanners, wool scourers and wool-washers, fellmongers, boiling down works and abattoirs had ten years to move their businesses outside city boundaries. Many of the trades moved to Redfern and Waterloo - attracted by the water. The sand hills still existed but by the late 1850s Redfern was a flourishing suburb housing 6,500 people.
The Municipalities Act of 1858 gave districts the option of municipal incorporation. Public meetings were held and after a flurry of petitions Redfern Municipality was proclaimed on 11 August 1859, the fourth in Sydney to be formed under the Act. Redfern Town Hall opened in 1870 and the Albert Cricket Ground in 1864. Redfern Post Office came in 1882. The majority of houses in Redfern in the 1850s were of timber. From the 1850s market gardeners congregated in Alexandria south of McEvoy Street, around Shea's Creek and Bourke Road.
Sydney's original railway terminus was built in the Cleveland Paddocks, which extended from Devonshire and Cleveland Streets to Chippendale. All that remains of the Cleveland Paddocks is Prince Alfred Park, where the exhibition building was erected in 1870 for an inter-colonial exhibition opened by Governor Belmore, after whom Belmore Park was named, on 30 August 1870.
Redfern was the scene of the maiden trip of the first double-decker tram in 1879. It travelled between the old Redfern station to the corner of Hunter and Elizabeth Streets in the city. In 1885 the Sands Sydney Directory listed 54 market gardens. While many were worked by European-Australians, by the 1870s Chinese market gardeners had acquired leases in the district and a decade later were dominating the trade.
The Eveleigh complex in 1886 became one of the largest employers in the state. Redfern was an industrial working class suburb by the end of the 19th century. Reschs brewery and other factories attracted migrants. The Syrian/Lebanese community began settling around Redfern and Surry Hills by the 1880s.
In the early history of the New South Wales Government Railways, Redfern station was the frequently used but unofficial name of the principal Sydney terminus, a fact which has led to persistent confusion. That station, the first Sydney Terminal, was north of Cleveland Street, which is Redfern's northern boundary, and south of Devonshire Street. It opened on 26 September 1855 in an area known as Cleveland Fields which is now the railway corridor called Sydney Yard. This original 'Redfern' station comprised one wooden platform in a corrugated iron shed, with the station's name honouring William Redfern. The station was built of iron and the first stationmaster was a Mr Fielding. As traffic increased the original station was replaced in 1874 by a brick and stone building containing two platforms. This second station, the second Sydney Terminal which grew to 14 platforms, was designed for through traffic if the lines were extended in the city direction. This second station was found to be too far from the city centre, so a new station (the present Sydney Central station) was built to the north of Devonshire Street and opened on 4 August 1906. The 1874 station was soon demolished.
A station was opened in 1876 1.3 kilometres (1 mi) west of the original Redfern and named Eveleigh, after an old home located on the western side of the railway line. In 1885 Eveleigh's platforms were reconstructed at its present site, and was renamed Redfern on 21 October 1906, shortly after the current Central railway station was opened on the site of the former Devonshire Street cemetery.
Redfern station had been opened to serve the Eveleigh railway workshops, the first stage of which was completed in 1887, as well as the inner-city residential and industrial suburb of Redfern, one of Sydney's most high-density residential areas. The name Eveleigh was retained for the railway workshops, just beyond the station, on the site of the original Hutchinson Estate, now part of the present suburb of Eveleigh. In 1894 there was a steam train collision at the station that resulted in eleven people being killed and several were injured including John Ralston
By the 1940s, three-quarters of Sydney factory workers worked within a three-mile radius of Redfern station, and many commuted to work by train.
The original station consisted of three island platforms serving four lines. The ticket office was located on the corner of Lawson Street and Rosehill Street, with stairs down to each individual platform. Rosehill Street was demolished to make way for the later expansion of Redfern station to the east, while the ticket office survived and was later extended.
The construction of the Redfern station was overseen by the office of John Whitton, engineer-in-chief of the NSW Railways. Whitton had been appointed in 1856 at the beginning of the NSW railway development and remained in the position until 1890, overseeing the establishment of the main body of the NSW system. The station was extended in 1891/92 to accommodate the quadruplication of the main suburban lines, with new platforms being built during this period (Platforms 5, 6 and 7) and again in 1919 (Platforms 8 and 9) and again in 1924/25 (Platform 10). In 1913 a footbridge was erected at the southern end of the platforms to allow access to the Eveleigh workshops from the station for the workers. The footbridge extended across all the platforms with stairs down to each.
On 1 August 1926, a further two platforms opened on the southern side (9 and 10) as part of the electrification of the Illawarra line. Work on underground platforms 11 and 12 began in the 1940s but did not finish until the 1970s when the Eastern Suburbs railway line was opened in 1979. The original plans of The City and Suburban Electric Railways (Amendment) Act of 1947 had included additional railway lines that were never completed, resulting in unfinished platforms and tunnels existing above the current platforms 11 and 12.
Until 1994, Redfern had an overhead footbridge at the Eveleigh end of the platforms, connecting platforms 1–10 by stairs. This was demolished because the funds for its maintenance were not available. In c. 1994 the southern footbridge was removed as the Eveleigh railway workshops were gradually closed down and the footbridge was no longer required.
In c. 1999, the station underwent a major upgrade including the demolition of the northern footbridge and stairs to the platforms. A new footbridge and stairs were built, with only a pair of iron newel posts on platform 1 remaining of the earlier stairways. A single track tunnel was built for steam locomotives from Central station to access Eveleigh Railway Workshops. Known as the Engine Dive, it dives to the north of Platform 1 surfacing at the southern end of Platform 10. A number of chimneys still exist, especially on Platform 1.
The present Redfern station was damaged by fire in the 2004 Redfern riots. The ticketing area and station master's office were significantly damaged - and the windows in the front of the station were bricked up for almost a year afterwards to prevent further attacks. They have since been replaced with glass windows.
A rising public concern about the lack of disability access to the station platforms led to a petition of over 50,000 signatures and a debate in State Parliament in 2013. Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian committed funding to provide a lift to one platform only which opened in November 2015 on platform 6 and 7.
The Gibbons Street exit closed in 2018 and was replaced by a new entrance on the corner of Gibbons and Lawson Streets in November 2018.
In August 2019, further improved accessibility was proposed including a new concourse at the southern end of the station. The Southern Concourse began construction in 2021 and opened in October 2023. The upgrade provided lift access to Platforms 1–10, a new entrance off Little Eveleigh Street and a relocation of the existing Marian Street entrance. To enable construction of the new concourse it was necessary to relocate a heritage listed building, originally built in 1884, on Platform 1.
Lift access to platforms 11–12, which are on a diverging, underground alignment, would potentially involve a multi-storey development, is still to be provided.
Redfern has 12 platforms, ten ground level (linked by stairs to the concourse at Lawson Street), and two underground (linked by stairs and escalators to the concourse at Gibbons Street). The two concourses are linked. Station offices and facilities such as toilets and the main indicator boards are located next to the Lawson Street entry.
As part of the construction of the Eastern Suburbs Railway (now platforms 11 and 12), it was proposed to build up to four platforms for the underground route. Two of these platforms were built and now are platforms 11 and 12, however, the two platforms above were half constructed above platforms 11 and 12. These are visible through a small gap in the wall opposite Platform 11, as well as by a boarded up entry portal under the Lawson Street Bridge (which was to be the down track), and a now filled-in dive tunnel under the Wells Street Sectioning Hut on the Central side of Lawson Street. The area in which the platforms were to be situated is visible from the station concourse at the entrance to Platform 10.
Redfern does not have a connecting bus interchange. However, two stops along Gibbon Street close to the Gibbons Street entrance (near platforms 11 and 12) serve the following Transdev John Holland, Transit Systems and two NightRide routes:
There are stops further afield in Redfern Street servicing bus routes to Railway Square and in Regent Street servicing bus routes to Marrickville, Mascot and Banksmeadow.
Redfern Railway Station Group has heritage significance at a state level as a major suburban station which played an important role in the development of the surrounding residential and industrial suburbs. It was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 as "the place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales."
The station includes a number of buildings and structures of rare architecture such as the Queen Anne style overhead booking office and the 1884 station building on Platform 1, which was relocated during the construction of the new southern concourse.
The station appeared in the 2017 film Bad Genius.
This Wikipedia article contains material from Redfern Railway Station group, entry number 1234 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 13 October 2018.