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Deepdene Station

Photo: Deepdene Station in 1926

Deepdene was a railway station on the Outer Circle Railway Line. It first opened in 1891 then closed in 1893. It then reopened again in 1900 as a section of the Outer Circle line from Riversdale to Deepdene. The passenger service withdrawn 1927. 

The station building was destroyed by fire in 1927, which was believed to have been caused by a swagman. The former departmental residence, which was located alongside the Whitehorse Road level crossing, was demolished in 1938. Until 1943, goods services to East Kew continued to pass through the site of Deepdene station.

Outer Circle Railway Line

The Outer Circle was built during the Melbourne land boom of the 1880s. Money was no object, and greedy capitalists saw the Colony of Victoria as a valuable investment opportunity. It was originally intended to bring goods trains into Melbourne from Gippsland. But after the State Government purchased the Melbourne & Hobson's Bay United Railway Company there was no longer a need to build the Outer Circle.

The first section was opened was on 24 March 1890, from Oakleigh to Waverley Road, and on to Burnley. It was followed by the line from Waverley Road to Camberwell on 24 March 1890, and the Riversdale to Fairfield Park section on 24 March 1891. The track was used in its entirety for only 26 months with the Fairfield to Deepdene end closing first. Next to close was the Norwood to Oakleigh section. 5 years after its construction, for a 12 month period, no trains operated on the railway at all. The depression of the 1890's meant that development in the outer areas of Melbourne was delayed.

Eventually the section between Ashburton and Deepdene was reopened for passengers, with a few extra stations operating. Amongst these were Stanley* (Mont Albert Road) renamed Roystead; Hartwell Station renamed Burwood; and Hartwell Hill renamed Hartwell. The station for the latter came from Walhalla. Stations were not manned and passengers bought tickets from the guard. Trains were serviced in Camberwell. This line was very popular with its passengers and continued until 1927. There wouldn't have been much traffic on the roads, but when a main road like Whitehorse Road was reached, the train had to stop, the guard with his red flag would step out onto the road, the train would cross, stop again and wait for the guard to climb back on board. The 'Deepdene Dasher' did its last run in 1927.

Although parts of the Outer Circle line were driven by politics and land speculators, the main purpose of the line was to be a route of produce to be brought to Melbourne by connecting the Gippsland Railway to the main government railway terminal at Spencer Street without requiring travel along the privately owned railway from Flinders Street. The majority of the former Outer Circle Line has now been converted into a bicycle trail called the Anniversary Trail to commemorate 100 years since the opening of the railway. The former rail corridor is almost entirely intact and includes sections in steep cuttings and embankments and several large bridges. The former bridge across the Yarra River at Fairfield is now used by traffic on the Chandler Highway.

Information from https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/outer-circle-railway

Photo: The 'Deepdene Dasher'

The Cache

At the posted coordinates you are standing in front of a sign.

A = The number of lines in the second (and smallest) slab of text

B = The last steam-hauled Dasher ran on 1? August 1926

C = The number of words on the top line of the sign (not including /)

D = The number of photographs on the sign

E = The number of letters in the first word of the first paragraph

The cache can be found not far away at S37° 48.ABB' E145° 3.CDE'

The cache is a small bison tube with that is camouflaged to match its surroundings.

Congratulations Sunrise_wanderer for being FTF.