REALLY SideTracked - Wallendbeen - A Jigidi for...

A series of caches to highlight the many towns, villages, hamlets, localities and crossroads around Australia.

Based on a series of caches in South Australia started by adelaideram. adelaideram was contacted and is happy with the series spreading its wings further into New South Wales.

This cache is also part of the worldwide SideTracked Series, which highlights railway stations and their history. As Wallendbeen's station is no longer in use, it qualifies as a REALLY SideTracked location — the designation used for former, disused and heritage railway stations.

This cache...

Wallendbeen is a small village on the South West Slopes of New South Wales, between Cootamundra and Young. Like many country settlements, the railway played an important part in its development, connecting the district with larger towns and providing a way for passengers, produce, livestock and goods to travel much greater distances.

The railway arrived at Wallendbeen in 1877, when the first station was established further west than the building you see today, near the site of the present grain silos.

It was a fairly modest beginning — initially there was little more than a platform. As railway traffic and the surrounding settlement developed, more facilities followed. By 1883, the station precinct included a lamp room, a house for the porter in charge, a goods shed, stockyards and a weighbridge.

The railway became more than simply a place to catch a train. For a period, the stationmaster also operated Wallendbeen's telegraph and post office, making the railway station an important communication centre for the small community.

The Great Southern Railway through Wallendbeen was duplicated in 1915, bringing further changes to the railway infrastructure through the village.

Then came a major change to the station itself.

The original station was destroyed by fire in the early twentieth century. After the lamp room was destroyed by fire in 1920, a replacement station was constructed further east, at the location where the surviving station buildings stand today.

The 1920 station consisted of three weatherboard buildings with galvanised iron roofs. More than a century later, those buildings remain beside the railway as a reminder of the days when the railway was an important part of everyday life in Wallendbeen.

Passenger trains no longer stop here, but the railway line remains active. So while the railway continues through Wallendbeen, the station itself belongs to another era.

That makes Wallendbeen an ideal location for a REALLY SideTracked cache — a chance to stop, solve a puzzle, find a cache and take a look at a small piece of Australia's railway history that might otherwise be passed without a second thought.

REALLY SideTracked

The SideTracked Series began as a way of encouraging geocachers to visit railway stations and discover some of the history and interesting places around them.

Former, disused and heritage stations use the REALLY SideTracked name.

So this one brings two cache ideas together:

REALLY SideTracked - Wallendbeen - A Jigidi for...

Enjoy the Jigidi, enjoy the hunt, and while you're here, have a look at what remains of Wallendbeen's railway past.

The cache is not at the posted coordinates. Complete the Jigidi to discover the information you need to find the cache.
 

REALLY SideTracked - Wallendbeen - A Jigidi for...