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Part of Upfield Railway Line

Location

Park Street,, BRUNSWICK VIC 3056 - Property No B5973

File Number

B5973

Level

Regional

Statement of Significance

The Upfield railway line was opened in 1884 to provide transport for the predominantly industrial and working class northern suburbs of Melbourne. Established industries such as the brickworks and potteries took advantage of the line by constructing sidings to their works. Hoffman's brickworks, Cornwell's pottery, Miller's ropeworks and Coburg grain sheds, all of which are significant in their own right, prospered in part thanks to the railway.
This line is intrinsically connected to the financial and building boom of the 1880s and was built as a consequence of the railway construction bills known as the Octopus Acts which facilitated much of the specualtion and housing development in Melbourne's suburbs.
While most suburban lines have been modified and updated, the Upfield line retains a unique collection of hand and wheel operated railway gates, and their associated buildings and installations, reflecting a safe working procedure more typical of the nineteenth rather than the twentieth century. These include the biggest group of hand operated gates and gate-keepers cabins in Victoria.
The original stations on the line - Jewell (originally South Brunswick), Brunswick, Moreland and Coburg - are built of brick in a late Victorian Gothic style to a similar, standard plan. Although other examples of the plan exist (eg Maldon) this grouping of four in such close proximity is unique adding a cohesion to the precinct.
The classified precinct is from Park Street to Coburg Station and includes the four stations, as well as gates, gate houses, signal boxes, foot bridges and other railway structures.
Classified: 22/05/1989
See also B4932 Coburg Railway Station.

Group