RINGWOOD RAILWAY STATION

The Ringwood Railway Station which comprises the brick station building, a timber station building, a timber signal box, platforms, railway tracks and other railway-related structures.

History Summary

Construction of the railway station at Ringwood commenced in 1889, seven years after the Melbourne to Hawthorn railway line was extended to Lilydale in 1882. The brick station building was erected on the downside platform, to the north of the rail line, when the Ringwood line was extended to Ferntree Gully. In 1891 a timber station building was constructed on the upside platform. A timber footbridge with steel beams and cross struts and corrugated iron lining to the balustrade was built in 1921. The timber signal box replaced an earlier structure in 1926 following electrification of the line.

Description Summary

The Ringwood Railway Station is located to the south of the Maroondah Highway in Ringwood. The 1889 brick station building is one of three designed by the Victorian Railways in this Tudor style. It is built of red tuckpointed brick with half-hipped slate roof and initially contained a ticket office, parcel office, ladies waiting room and rest room. The building has detailing consistent with the Tudor style including angular pointed openings to the windows. The roof incorporates steeply pitched gable roof vents, the chimney breasts feature dark polychromatic brickwork and the window heads have depressed triangular heads. The convex platform canopy is supported on cast iron Corinthian columns. Extensions were made to the west end of this building in the 1920s and in the mid-twentieth century.

The 1891 timber station building appears to be one of the most intact of a small number of surviving timber station buildings which were of a basic modular design using similar detailing and primarily constructed at suburban locations. Eight stations were built in this specific "Ringwood style" between 1886 and 1891 and it appears that only three survive. These stations included only the most basic facilities, the minimum including a small booking office and open waiting area with timber bench seating as constructed at Ringwood. The building is a simple timber pavilion with gable roof, end finials and cross bracing, and cantilevered canopy supported on deep timber brackets; an original ticket window is extant within the building. A booking lobby has been added to the east end of this station building. This building has been relocated along the platform a number of times.

This site is part of the traditional land of the Kulin Nation.

How is it significant?

Ringwood Railway Station is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:

Criterion A Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria's cultural history

Criterion E Importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics

Why is it significant?

Ringwood Railway Station is significant at the State level for the following reasons:

Ringwood Railway Station is historically significant due to the role the station, and the line, played in the development of Melbourne's eastern suburbs. Coinciding with the 1880s land boom, the construction of these stations aided the substantial development of eastern suburban Melbourne. [Criterion A]

Ringwood Railway Station is architecturally significant as an illustrative assemblage of nineteenth century and early twentieth century railway buildings. The upside building at Ringwood Railway Station is of architectural significance as a rare surviving example of the early modular style of station buildings. It is one of the most intact examples externally of its type surviving in metropolitan Melbourne. The downside building is a comparatively rare example of the Tudor style station. The signal box is a comparatively rare and intact example of a signal box of this size. [Criterion E ]

Group

Transport - Rail

Category

Railway Platform/ Station