York railway station is a disused station on the Eastern Railway in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is located in the town of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

History

The York station opened on 29 June 1885 as the interim terminus of the Eastern Railway when it was extended from Chidlow's Well. York became a

junction station ''Junction station'' usually refers to a railway station situated on or close to a junction where lines to several destinations diverge. The usual minimum is three incoming lines. At a station with platforms running from left to right, the minimum ...

with a line opened south to

Beverley Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...

on 5 August 1886 to connect with the Great Southern Railway from Albany. On 29 June 1885,

Walkinshaw Cowan Walkinshaw Cowan (25 December 180822 January 1888) was private secretary to Western Australian Governors John Hutt, Andrew Clarke and Frederick Irwin, then in 1848 he became Guardian of Aborigines and a justice of the peace, and then resident m ...

was invited to give a speech at the extension of the railway line to York. He said: The single fare from Perth to York was 5 shillings and the return fare was 7 shillings and sixpence. The Bruce Rock line opened east to Greenhills on 1 September 1898, being extended to

Quairading Quairading is a Western Australian town located in the Wheatbelt region. It is the seat of government for the Shire of Quairading. History The town was named for Quairading Spring, derived from a local Aboriginal word recorded in 1872 by s ...

on 24 April 1908 and

Bruce Rock Bruce Rock is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, approximately east of Perth and southwest of Merredin. It is the main town in the Shire of Bruce Rock. History Originally known as Nunagin or Noonegin, the name of ...

on 28 March 1913. It was cut back to Quairading in the 1990s and closed entirely in October 2013. When the Eastern Railway was extended to

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

in 1894, it was done so via Northam rather than York even though it was the largest inland town in Western Australia at the time. In 1906, the station was extended. In 1977, it was classified by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. The '' Albany Progress'' utilised the station until the service ceased in December 1978.

Railway Station Master’s Quarters

The Railway Station Master’s Quarters were designed by George Temple-Poole and would have been one his first buildings after he was appointed as Principal Architect in June 1885. The building is possibly the earliest example of

Federation Arts and Crafts Federation architecture is the architectural style in Australia that was prevalent from around 1890 to 1915. The name refers to the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, when the Australian colonies collectively became the Commonwealth of Au ...

style in Australia, emulating

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

, for whom the ideal in house design was to copy the “ageless domestic architecture” of

Bibury Bibury is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is on the River Coln, a Thames tributary that rises in the same (Cotswold) District. The village centre is northeast of Cirencester. Arlington Row is a nationally notable a ...

in Gloucestershire, a Cotswald hamlet.Davey, P: Arts and Crafts Architecture: The Search for Earthly Paradise, The Architectural Press: London, 1980, p.24. Temple-Poole has designed the Railway Station Quarters like a Cotswald cottage: * small in scale, homely and domestic * using two locally made materials with contrasting colours and textures, stone and brick * high pitched roofs * irregular positioned windows * taller than usual chimneys * protruding eaves * twin gables The building is now a private residence.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

York Station
History of Western Australian Railways & Stations gallery Disused railway stations in Western Australia Eastern Railway (Western Australia)

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 pre ...

Railway stations in Australia opened in 1885 Railway stations closed in 1978

State Register of Heritage Places in the Shire of York