Crowes was a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
located in the
Otway Ranges
The Great Otway National Park is a national park located in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated approximately southwest of Melbourne, in the Otway Ranges, a low coastal mountain range. It conta ...
.
It is noted for having been the southernmost railway terminus in mainland
Australia.
History
Crowes station was opened on 20 June 1911, as part of the extension of the
Colac to Beech Forest Narrow-gauge railway.
It consisted of a platform track and two loop sidings, with No. 3 Road servicing a pig race and a ramped goods platform. A four-chain curve beyond the yard ended with a standard narrow-gauge buffer stop in front of a huge tree stump.
At the Up end of the yard, an Annett-locked loco siding facing the yard had two ash pits, a water stand-pipe and an engine shed.
Two timber station buildings, separated by a waiting shelter, provided passenger and staff accommodation. A van-goods shed was located at the Down end of the platform.
In 1934, bushfires destroyed the station buildings and engine shed. A 12' x 20' "portable" station building was provided to replace the earlier ones, but it only housed bunks for the train crew staying overnight.
The pig race and goods platform were removed in 1940, whilst No. 2 Road was removed in 1941.
Services
The station's purpose and namesake was a local landowner who utilised the railway to ship
timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...
and
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es. The station rarely saw a regular passenger service, especially in its decline, due to low utilisation and isolation.
Mixed train
A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, service ...
s often served the few passengers that ventured to Crowes, but they were inconvenient as goods trucks had to be
shunted at each station, drastically increasing travel time.
The 1920s in particular were a boom period for the production of timber in the area.
Proposed future extensions
There were proposals for the line to be further extended as far as Princetown on the Great Ocean Road, with surveys being carried out as far as Wangerrip, or "Colac Tree Station".
References
Footnotes
Sources
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Disused railway stations in Victoria (Australia)
{{VictoriaAU-railstation-stub