Rozelle Yard was a goods

railway yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

Rozelle Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Location Rozelle s ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It was one of two major yards on the

Rozelle–Darling Harbour Goods Line The Rozelle–Darling Harbour Goods Line is a railway line in Sydney, Australia, the great majority of which became part of the Inner West Light Rail. It was part of the city's goods railway network; through conversion to light rail, most of th ...

, the

other Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), ...

being in

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour and neighborhood adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central busines ...

. After

heavy rail Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas: Rapid transit A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid acceleratio ...

traffic ceased, part of the site was redeveloped into the Lilyfield Maintenance Depot of Sydney Light Rail. Other parts of the former yard were redeveloped into

Rozelle Interchange The Rozelle Interchange is an underground motorway interchange in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was built as part of WestConnex and opened to traffic on 26 November 2023. The interchange includes a toll-free bypass of Victoria Road b ...

and the Rozelle Parklands.

History

By 1908, goods traffic on the line to

and the neighbouring suburban lines had become excessive, with 592 wagons arriving each day and 512 being dispatched. It was decided to construct the Metropolitan Goods line from Sefton to Darling Harbour via Enfield,

Dulwich Hill Dulwich Hill is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 7.5 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Inner West Council. Dulwich Hill stretche ...

and

, with extensions to

Botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and the State

Abattoir In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a meat ...

s at

Homebush Bay Homebush Bay is a bay on the south bank of the Parramatta River, in the west of Sydney, Australia. The name is also sometimes used to refer to an area to the west and south of the bay itself, which was formerly an official suburb of Sydney, a ...

. The initial scheme, approved by the Parliamentary Committee on Public Works, approved the initial line from Dulwich Hill to Darling Harbour. To avoid an opening rail bridge alongside the existing

Glebe Island Bridge The Glebe Island Bridge is a heritage-listed disused swing Allan truss road bridge that carried Victoria Road (as Bank Street) across Johnstons Bay, located in the inner city Sydney suburb of Pyrmont, New South Wales, Australia. The br ...

, a circuitous route was built around

Rozelle Bay Rozelle Bay is a bay located to the south of Glebe Island and the west of Blackwattle Bay, on Sydney Harbour. The naming of the bay is derived from either the Rosella, Rosella bird or the Roselle (plant), Rosella plant, with the latter being m ...

through Pyrmont. The proposal, which included two tunnels under Pyrmont and

Glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

, was approved on 23 November 1914, and the line opened on 23 January 1922. A branch line from the yard served the

White Bay Power Station The 'White Bay Power Station'' is a heritage listed former coal-fired power station on a site in White Bay, New South Wales, White Bay, in the suburb of Rozelle, from Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The remains of the plant can be clea ...

and White Bay. The yard was electrified in September 1967. In January 1996, the

Lilyfield Lilyfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lilyfield is located 6 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Lilyfield is ...

to Central section of the Metropolitan Goods line closed. Much of the alignment was reutilised by the

Inner West Light Rail The Inner West Light Rail is a light rail line in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, running from Central railway station, Sydney, Central railway station through the Inner West to Dulwich Hill railway station, Dulwich Hill and serving 23 sto ...

that opened to

Wentworth Park Wentworth Park is a park near the suburbs of Glebe and Ultimo in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The park contains several multi-purpose sporting pitches, cricket nets and a number of fitness installations. There is a playground in the s ...

in August 1997 and was extended to Lilyfield in August 2000. The stop serving Lilyfield was built adjacent to the rail yards. The yard saw a considerable decline in traffic throughout the 2000s, becoming overgrown and being used only intermittently for storage of disused passenger and freight carriages. Traffic on the line ceased in 2009 and the yard fell out of use.

Redevelopment

In February 2010, following the cessation of goods traffic the previous year, the Keneally Government announced a extension of the light rail from Lilyfield to

. The Lilyfield Maintenance Depot was built to the west of the Lilyfield station for maintenance and stabling. A second platform was added at Lilyfield for services towards Dulwich Hill. The Dulwich Hill extension opened in 2014. A maintenance depot was constructed next to the station on the site of the yard. Part of the yard was utilised by the

WestConnex WestConnex in Sydney, Australia is the largest and longest road tunnel in Australia, with a length of 22 km. A joint project of the New South Wales and Australian Federal governments, the motorway scheme created around motorway with 6-10 lan ...

M4-M5 Link and the

. As a result of the renewal works, the precinct now includes ten hectares of green space featuring smokestacks, sports fields and recreational facilities. The Rozelle Parklands were opened on 17 December 2023.

Gallery

File:White Bay from Victoria Rd.JPG, The branch line to

from Victoria Road in 2011 File:Lilyfield NSW 2040, Australia - panoramio (5).jpg, The yard in 2012. The disused alignment had become severely overgrown File:Rozelle NSW 2039, Australia - panoramio (9).jpg, Another shot of the disused yard in 2012 viewed from Lilyfield Road File:Rozelle Yard 20180918.jpg, Rozelle Yard in 2018, after disused infrastructure was cleared for redevelopment File:Rozelle yards.jpg, Looking west from Catherine Street in 2019. A junction connects the line to the new depot File:Rozelle Yard 2019.jpg, Site of the yard in 2019 as construction was ongoing

References

External links

{{commons category-inline Rail infrastructure in New South Wales Rozelle, New South Wales Transport infrastructure completed in 1922 1922 establishments in Australia