Rozelle Yard was a goods railway yard in Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia. It was one of two major yards on the Metropolitan Goods line, the other being in

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour 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 business district. Orig ...

. Since heavy rail traffic ceased, part of the site has been redeveloped into a light rail depot and maintenance facility. The site of the former yard is currently being redeveloped into the Rozelle Interchange.

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 str ...

and Rozelle, with extensions to

Botany Botany, also called plant science (or plant sciences), plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "bot ...

and the State

Abattoir A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are Animal slaughter, slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a Meat packing industry, packaging facility. Slaug ...

s at Homebush Bay. 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, a circuitous route was built around Rozelle Bay through Pyrmont. The proposal, which included two tunnels under Pyrmont and

Glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 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 ...

, was approved on 23 November 1914, and the line opened on 23 January 1922. A branch line from the yard served White Bay Power Station. The yard was electrified in September 1967. In January 1996, the Lilyfield 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 through the Inner West to Dulwich Hill and serving 23 stops. It is the original line of the Sydney light rail netwo ...

that opened to Wentworth Park in August 1997 and was extended to Lilyfield in August 2000. 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

A light rail stop serving Lilyfield, located adjacent to the rail yards, opened on 13 August 2000 as the terminus of the Wentworth Park-Lilyfield extension of the Inner West Light Rail. 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

. A stabling facility was built to the west of Lilyfield station. A second platform was added at Lilyfield for services towards Dulwich Hill. The Dulwich Hill extension opened in 2014. The site of the yard is within the area covered by the Bays Precinct project. Rozelle rail yards will be one of ten sub-precincts within Bays West. Ten hectares of parkland are to be built on the site under draft plans. A maintenance depot was constructed next to the station on the site of the Rozelle Rail Yards. Part of the yard is to be utilised by the WestConnex M4-M5 Link and be redeveloped as the Rozelle Interchange. As a result of the current renewal works, the precinct will include ten hectares of green space featuring smokestacks, sports fields and recreational facilities and is due to be open to the public in late 2023.

Gallery

File:Lilyfield maintenance depot, Rozelle Yard.jpg, The Lilyfield Maintenance Depot on the site of the former heavy rail yard in 2021 File:Rozelle Yard 20180918.jpg, Rozelle Yard in 2018, after disused infrastructure was cleared for redevelopment 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:Lilyfield 25-02-11 (5483757166).jpg, Looking west from Catherine Street in 2011, with the

on the left File:Rozelle yards.jpg, Looking west from Catherine Street in 2019. A junction connects the line to the new depot File:White Bay from Victoria Rd.JPG, The branch line to White Bay Power Station from

Victoria Road Victoria Road may refer to: Roads * Victoria Road, Adelaide, Australia * Victoria Road, Sydney, Australia * Victoria Road, Cambridge, England * Victoria Road, Oxford, England * Victoria Road, Kensington, London, England * Victoria Road, Hong ...

in 2011 File:Rozelle Yard 2019.jpg, Site of the yard in 2019

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