Railway Tunnel including interior - Little Myers Ryrie Street, Geelong

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE - GRC HISTORIC PLACES DOCUMENTATION SHEET NO 183

The Geelong Railway Tunnel, one of very few tunnels constructed in Victoria by the Victorian Railways in the nineteenth century, was built by Overend and Robb as part of a contract to construct the first 12 miles of the Geelong to Colac Railway work commencing in October 1874. The tunnel was adopted only after considerable debate over the location of a surface route could not be resolved, and economic factors prevailed. This single line tunnel with characteristic Victorian railway design bridge abutments is built of basalt and brick. The tunnel has long been an item of interest on the Melbourne-Warrnambool railway route and a notable engineering achievement of the nineteenth century in Victoria.

RECOMMENDATIONS: PROTECTIVE MEASURES

Geelong Regional Commission Register

Australian Heritage Commission Register of the National Estate

Historic Buildings Register

REFERENCE:

Victorian Railways Administration Offices, Spencer Street, Melbourne - Archives and Plan Records. Plans, Bin 2-714, Nos 218-225.

Brownhill, W. R. - A History of Geelong and Corio Bay, Wilke & Co., Melbourne, 1955, pp. 444

Group

Transport - Rail

Category

Railway Tunnel