I decided to place my Virtual Cache here as there are no other caches nearby and this Magnificent Railway Station with it's grand "white Swans" seems to be a thing of the past tucked away with modernization with bitumen, crosswalks public transport and fences. Such a shame when you see how it used to look. So i i thought that this Railway Station needed to get some lime light through the wider geocaching community not only for locals but for visitors from afar.
The original Fremantle station opened in Cliff Street on 1 March 1881 as the terminus of the Eastern Railway to Guildford via Perth. As the Eastern Railway was extended its importance grew, becoming an important hub for gold miners arriving in Western Australia via ship and then travelling to the Yilgarn and Eastern Goldfields when the line opened to Kalgoorlie in 1896.
In 1907, a new station and marshalling yards were established 300 metres to the north-east on the site of the former Fremantle Railway Workshops to better service the newly constructed Fremantle Harbour. The station was designed by William Dartnall, Chief Engineer of Existing Lines of the Railway Department in 1905. The construction contract, at an estimated cost of ₤80,000, was awarded in May 1906 to S.B. Alexander and completed on 20 April 1907, with the official opening on 1 July 1907. Originally the station had three 150 metre platforms, one side and one island, with a subway connection and an overall roof. This had been taken out of use by the 1960s and was later demolished. Until the 1960s, passenger services continued south of Fremantle to Kwinana.
A signal cabin was relocated from the eastern end of the platform to the Bennett Brook Railway in 1985. The station closed on 1 September 1979 along with the rest of the Fremantle line. Following much public outcry and a change of government, it re-opened on 29 July 1983.
The station features Donnybrook stone construction on the façade with red face brick infill panels on a Donnybrook stone plinth, in Federation Free Classical style featuring a rare example of a large train hall roof. The facade remained unpainted (except for metalwork and timberwork) until it was painted in 1950. The station was classified by the National Trust in 1974 and entered into the Heritage Council of Western Australia's Register of Heritage Places in 2001. A rationalisation of the rail reserve in 2004 was part of a plan to revitalise the precinct. In 2005, a program of staged conservation and restoration works in line with a conservation plan prepared in 1999 commenced. This included paint removal and restoration of the main entry façade, refurbishment of most of the internal areas and an electrical upgrade to bring the station up to modern standards. In August 2011, the project was completed with the restoration of external facades of the station building.
History courtesy of Wikipedia
Once at the station walk inside and have a look at the magnificent structure including the arches and arched roof. You will find a couple of plaques near the arches on a wall. Whilst walking around the outside of the station near an entrance you will find some more plaques with lots of information on them. You will need to study them to obtain some information to answer some questions.
TO LOG A FIND ON THIS VIRTUAL CACHE PLEASE COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING TASKS:
1. Find the plaques and send me a message (through the Geocaching app or by email) with the answers to the following questions:
a) How many wagons can be seen in the diagram? b) How much did Mr JJ Harwood invest opposite the station? and c) What place number did the Heritage Council give the station?
2. Post a photo of yourself, GPS, or other personal item in front of the railway station. Alternatively; send the picture to me directly as a message through the Geocaching app or by email.
Please feel free to log the Virtual immediately but note that any logs that do not meet the logging requirements above may be deleted.
Enjoy this grand and majestic building and when you are standing out on the platform take yourself back in time and imagine the countless steam trains going past the station pulling freight wagons to and from the ships to the freight sheds and wool stores. Imagine yourself being swamped by hundreds of people who came to Fremantle by ship and passed through this station and boarded one of the many passenger carriages to try and make their riches during the gold rush in the Goldfields.
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.