RINGWOOD RAILWAY STATION ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRECINCT

The structural remains of the former Station Master's Residence at Ringwood Railway Station and any associated archaeological deposits or features are significant.

The structural remains of the former Ringwood Railway Station Tool Shed and any associated archaeological deposits or features are significant.

The Station Master’s Residence at Ringwood Railway Station is significant because of its association with the earliest years of the station’s daily operations. Any archaeological remains have the potential to provide valuable insight into the development of public transportation Ringwood and the changes made to the daily operations of the station over time.


The former Tool Shed at Ringwood Railway Station is significant because of its association with the Belgrave and Lilydale lines, first established in the 1880s in response to the growing population and widening sprawl of Melbourne’s suburbs.

The Station Master’s Residence at Ringwood Railway Station meets two of the themes in the Victorian Framework of Historical Themes: 3.3 Connecting Victorians by Transport and Communications – Linking Victorians by Rail and 6.3 Building Towns, Cities and the Garden State - Shaping the Suburbs (Heritage Council of Victoria 2009). 

Theme 3.3 Connecting Victorians by Transport and Communications – Linking Victorians by Rail. The Station Master’s Residence is representative of the mass construction of housing for Station Masters across Victoria in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which was considered a necessity to keep Victoria’s railway system functioning. Station Masters were deemed the ‘front line soldiers’ of the Victorian railway system by Harold Clapp, Chairman of the Comissioners of Victorian Railways (Lee 2004, p. 154). As a former residential dwelling, the site has the potential to provide information about the nature of early 20th century domestic life in Ringwood, especially the life of the Station Master and their family. The site may also possess social values for Ringwood residents as the Station Master was often a noteworthy figure in the local community (Old Treasury Building Museum 2022). 

Theme 6.3 Building towns, Cities and the Garden State - Shaping the Suburbs. The location of the Station Master’s Residence at the confluence of Maroondah Highway and Warrandyte Road would have made the site a prominent landmark in Ringwood, particularly as Ringwood was chiefly regarded as a “railway junction” in the early 20th century (Victorian Places 2015). The construction of the Station Master’s Residence was a direct influence on the accelerating growth of Ringwood, which was stimulated by the construction and electrification of the railway. 

The Ringwood Railway Station Tool Shed is historically significant because it is associated with the advent of railway electrification in the early 20th century, which almost completely replaced the previous all-steam operation of the railways with a more efficient system (Lee 2007, p. 178).

The Ringwood Railway Station Tool Shed meets Theme 3.3 Connecting Victorians by Transport and Communications – Linking Victorians by Rail in the Victorian Framework of Historical Themes (Heritage Council of Victoria 2009). The Tool Shed was an important structure as it provided a secure storage space for equipment necessary for servicing the railway lines at the station. Any subsurface features or deposits that may remain have the potential to provide valuable information about the maintenance of the railways tracks in the early 20th century, the change in maintenance activities before and after electrification, and the working lives of ‘permanent way’ men.