Clunes

The station here at Clunes was opened in 1874, and is of the same design as Creswick. It was closed in 1987, when passenger trains finished using the location as a crossing facility, and Tourello Loop, opened in 1988, continued to fulfill this function.  The yard lingered at least another year however before being removed. Since that time the station has been left empty, with the main building falling into a state of disrepair. However, with the reintroduction of a service to Maryborough, extensive works are being undertaken to bring the station back into use. This involves quite a bit of messy demolition and reconstruction to the lovely old structure. Clunes station is famous for two reasons, one for scenes in the first Mad Max film, and two, from fanatical ticket collectors as there remained on issue, a school pupil’s second class Edmondson return for “Sloyd – woodwork-  and Cookery” subjects at Maryborough. Clunes was going to be fully interlocked like Creswick, but this did not eventuate. In the end the result was a small signal box, which was a standard wooden portable building that once dotted the VR network in profusion. This was adapted to house the 10 levers for the southern end of the yard, at the Melbourne end of the station building. It is possible that it may have been the only type of this structure used in this manner. All trace of these facilities have long since vanished. The station and surrounds of today will be very different to that of only a few decades ago.

The ‘messy demolition’ at Clunes has also caused a few words to be written on the topic over at Railpage Australia. There are a few photos in the linked thread for which we have received permission to use here. Acknowledgements are in the captions. There are also some recent pre demolition photos at Vicrailstations.