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TARADALE RAILWAY PRECINCT (MURRAY VALLEY RAILWAY, MELBOURNE TO ECHUCA)
STATION STREET TARADALE, MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE

All information on this page is maintained by Heritage Victoria. Click below for their website and contact details.

Victorian Heritage Register

TARADALE RAILWAY PRECINCT (MURRAY VALLEY RAILWAY, MELBOURNE TO ECHUCA) SOHE 2008

1 railway viaduct heales street taradale side elevation apr1995

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Statement of Significance
Public contributions
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Statement of Significance

The Taradale railway precinct forms part of the Murray Valley Railway (Melbourne to Echuca line). Opened in five stages from February 1859 to September 1864, the Murray Valley Railway was the largest of the Colony's first two main trunk lines. The inability of the line's original private promoters - the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Company - to raise sufficient funds to construct the line, led to the government purchasing the company and embracing a public railway system. The Government's decision to construct the line in 1856 was accompanied by the formation of the Victorian Railways Department. The building of the line during the early 1860s reflected the strategic economic issues of the day: servicing the important goldfields of Castlemaine and Bendigo, and capturing the Murray River and Riverina trade for the Port of Melbourne. With a labour force of more than 6,000 men, the Melbourne to Echuca line was the Colony's largest capital works project of its time. The line is still used today for public transport and freight services and comprises a very large number of structures and facilities of varying ages, conditions and degrees of operational and business significance.

The Taradale railway precinct is of historical and scientific importance to the State of Victoria.

The Taradale railway precinct (comprising the Taradale viaduct, station complex and two culverts) is historically and scientifically significant as an integral part of the railway line and an important representative sample of one of the earliest and grandest capital works projects in Victorian history. The four features comprising the precinct are all substantially intact and provide a crucial reminder of the adoption of English engineering and architectural standards and the role of the Victorian Railway Department in developing the Colony's engineering expertise.

The Taradale Station is of architectural significance as an important and intact example of a station complex on the line. The railway station is also significant as an essentially intact example of the 'Carlsruhe' style of station building. At the time of its construction the nearby viaduct was the largest Australian metal girder bridge and had the second largest span (after the Barwon River Bridge, at Geelong). It is also significant as one of the oldest existing metal bridges in Australia. The two culverts, one at either end of the station, are excellent examples of two of the three culvert design types used on the Kyneton to Bendigo section of the line. The Taradale railway precinct makes an important contribution in defining the character of the Victorian railway network.

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All information on this page is maintained by Heritage Victoria. Click below for their website and contact details.

Victorian Heritage Register

Record Details

Place ID
1144
Location
STATION STREET TARADALE, MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE
Municipality
MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE
Heritage Listing
Victorian Heritage Register
Level of significance
Registered
Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number
H1595

Heritage Overlay Numbers
HO867
Extent of Registration

NOTICE OF REGISTRATION

As Executive Director for the purpose of the Heritage Act, I give notice under section 46 that the Victorian Heritage Register is amended in that the Heritage Register Number 1595 in the category described as a Heritage Place is now described as:

Taradale Railway Precinct (Murray Valley Railway, Melbourne to Echuca), Station Street, Taradale, Mt Alexander Shire.

EXTENT:

1. All of the railway engineering works and railway station known as:
. V-1, Taradale viaduct, map reference 7723-650860,
. C-1, box culvert, 7723-650868,
. S-1, Taradale Railway Station, 7723-650869,
. C-2, brick semi-circular culvert, 7723-650870, and
. all associated embankments and cuttings on Diagram No. 602023A held by the Executive Director.

2. All of the buildings known as the Taradale Railway Station complex, including the station building and associated platforms, levers, signals aand fences (B-1), lamp room/toilet block (B-2), goods shed (B-3), passenger waiting facilities (B-4), bluestone box culvert, (B-5, upside of station), and brick semi-circular culvert (B-6, downside from station) as marked on Diagram No. 602023B held by the Executive Director.

3. All of the structure known as the Railway Viaduct over Back Creek, Taradale, including the beams, superstructure, steel truss piers, bluestone piers and abutments, parapets and balustrading, as marked B-1 on Diagram No.602023C held by the Executive Director.

4. All of the land 200 metres north of the Taradale Railway Station to 50 metres south of the southern end of the Taradale viaduct and marked L-1 on Diagram No. 602023A being Crown land parcel P131159 and part of Crown land parcel P131129 vested in the Public Transport.

Dated: 4 February 1999

RAY TONKIN

Executive Director

[Victoria Government Gazette G 8 25 February 1999 pp.505-506]
Year Construction Started
1862
VHR Registration
August 20, 1982
Amendment to Registration
February 25, 1999
Heritage Act Categories
Registered place
Category

Transport - Rail