Bendigo Workshops

Bendigo Workshops is a railway workshop in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the north of the city beside the junction of the Yungera and Deniliquin railway lines. The site covers 10.3 hectares of land and has 31 separate buildings, including a 10,000 sqm main workshop building and six kilometres of railway track.[1]

Bendigo Workshops
BuiltNovember 1917
LocationBendigo, Australia
ProductsTrains
Buildings31
Area10.3 hectares

History
Exterior of the workshops
Main workshop building
Lifting a DD class steam locomotive

The workshops were opened in November 1917 by the Victorian Railways. It opened in response to political pressures from provincial groups for decentralisation, with the Victorian Railways preferring the cheaper option of expanding the existing Newport Workshops in suburban Melbourne.[2] Furthermore, unemployment had risen in both Bendigo and Ballarat due to a decline in mining operations.[3] The main work carried out was repairs and maintenance of existing wagons and locomotives, however during 1919-22 thirteen new steam locomotives were also built - eight DD class (1033 - 1037, 1047 - 1049) and five A2 class (1078 - 1082).[4]

From the 1950s onwards, numerous steam locomotives were scrapped at the workshops. During the years immediately following nominal dieselisation in 1968, they were, at times, cutting up locomotives at the rate of one every two to three weeks.[3]

The workshops were also the site of the first VR brass foundry, which was transferred to Newport by the 1960s. Also throughout 1965 VLX louvred vans were constructed at the workshops, at a rate of one a week. Other tasks included spring manufacture, construction of stainless steel footwarmers, and assembly of pantographs for electric trains, with a staff of 720 employed during 1966. By the 1980s, refurbishment work was also being carried out on Melbourne suburban electric multiple units.

The 1980s were also a time of restructuring, and on the breakup of the Victorian Railways the workshops passed to the State Transport Authority and then the Public Transport Corporation. With privatisation the workshops were closed, with the loss of 262 jobs.[5] In February 1996, the workshops were taken over by A Goninan & Co.[6]

In October 1999 the workshops were purchased by Great Northern Rail Services, with A Goninan & Co remaining as a tenant.[7][8] In February 2001 A Goninan & Co vacated the site.[9][10]

The workshops were redeveloped in 2002 at a cost of $6.5 million - $4 million from VicTrack, $2 million from the State Government Regional Infrastructure Development Fund and $500,000 by the City of Greater Bendigo. The redevelopment was officially opened in 2004, with Empire Rubber (a division of Nylex) the major tenant, producing rubber vehicle components until the company collapsed in 2007.[11][12][13]

Since 2009, the workshops had been leased to Southern Shorthaul Railroad, who use the site for locomotive and rollingstock maintenance for Aurizon, GrainCorp, Metro Trains Melbourne, Pacific National, Qube Holdings, Rail First Asset Management and V/Line.[14][15][16] In 2012 it built two BRM class locomotives at the workshops.[17]

References
  1. Austrim Nylex Limited's Rubber Business Boosted Nylex 6 November 2002
  2. Lee, Robert (2007). The Railways of Victoria 1854-2004. Melbourne University Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-522-85134-2.
  3. A Job for Life Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 727 May 1998 pages 176-187
  4. Victorian Railways: Country Workshops Museum Victoria
  5. Coalition snubs regional Victoria in a return to the bad old days Minister for Regional & Rural Development 13 February 2008
  6. Bendigo Workshops Newsrail May 1996 page 133
  7. Railway Workshops Contract Awarded Newsrail October 1999 page 292
  8. Workshops Transit Australia October 1999 page 234
  9. Bendigo North Workshops to Close Newsrail March 2001 page 68
  10. Newsline Railway Digest April 2001 page 10
  11. Railway Workshop Redevelopment Opened Department of Treasury & Finance 7 May 2004
  12. Bendigo Workshops Redevlopment Opened Newsrail September 2004 page 297
  13. Empire Rubber saga settles, no money for workers Bendigo Advertiser 7 June 2016
  14. Festive fix-up for historic chimney Bendigo Advertiser 17 December 2009
  15. Bendigo Railway Workshops Bendigo Manufacturing Group
  16. Bendigo Southern Shorthaul Railroad
  17. BRM001 Newsrail September 2012 page 282

36.7457°S 144.2976°E / -36.7457; 144.2976

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