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East Kew Station
Photo: East Kew Goods Yard
East Kew Station and a goods siding were part of the Riversdale to Fairfield Park section of the Outer Circle line, and opened in March 1891.
The station, built on the west side of Normanby Road, closed on 12 April 1893. The eastern section of the Outer Circle from East Kew was extensively rebuilt when the line from Riversdale to East Kew reopened for goods traffic on 11 February 1925.
The East Kew goods siding was east of Normanby Road and functioned until September 1943. Bruce Steele remembers this train used to cart firewood and coal for domestic heating to the woodyard which still exists on the right of the line near the Harp of Erin Hotel.
The last section of the Outer Circle to be dismantled was between East Kew and Riversdale. The Railway Dismantling Act 1944 authorised this action which was completed by May 1946.
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 wooden posts holding up the sign
B = The number of times the number 8 appears on the sign
C = The number of letters in the surname of the photographer
D = The goods train was hauled by Loco A? 968
E = The number of letters in the word in the bottom row, left hand side of the side starting with d
The cache can be found not far away at S37° 48.ABC' E145° 3.DED'
The cache is a small camouflaged container.
Congratulations Sunrise_wanderer for being FTF.