Katoomba Railway Goods Yard - A History

Plans to turn the Railway Goods Yard at Katoomba Station into a car park date back to at least 1994

In 1996, Council under the management of Deputy Mayor, Jim Angel, invited members of the public, Councillors and local business owners to join a car parking committee for Katoomba. Typically the Railway Goods Yard was fingered as the likely location. At the first meeting, members of the public put a forceful and logical argument that any plan for parking should be part of a plan for the town. At the time, we had a plan for a car park but no plan for a one of the country's most famous towns.

This committee soon became the Katoomba and Echo Planning Advisory Committee and developed a plan that became the underpinning of a proposal adopted at a formal Council meeting in February 1997 aimed at Katoomba's rejuvenation. This plan proposed the creation of a public park on the Railway Goods Yard site, Cultural / Visitors Centre on the currently proposed site, trolley service to Echo Point and surrounds, Carrington Place public park, commuter parking on the north side of Katoomba station and a range of innovative concepts that attracted Councillors' interest.

Subsequently, the Main St committee (precursor of the current Chamber) was formed, workshops held at the Civic Centre and the 1998 Charrette developed detailed plans for the town's future.

The Charrette was a large planning process involving experts across a range of disciplines including transport management, environmental planners, urban designers, demographers, social planners and huge input from the local community. The final plans proposed a public park on the Railway Goods Yard site, a local trolley service, improved parking including the north side commuter carpark, plans for the reopening of the Savoy as a performance space, Cultural Centre proposal and much more. These plans were proposed in the shadow of the Olympics and it was considered vital to have them laid down in detail before that event.



Unfortunately, we missed this deadline and much of the Charrette's plans have languished. One of the most contentious yet popular with the local community, the Carrington Place public space, is the only major completed project. However, plans for the public space in the Goods Yard did make some progress under the management of Infrastructure Partnerships, a Division of NSW Department of Public Works. These plans were for development at the western end of the site with some parking and public space at the eastern end closer to Katoomba Street. This plan met opposition from Council staff. One of the main complaints was the absence of a Heritage Study for the site.

In June 2000 and in response to Council's complaint, Mr Ray Christison of High Ground Consulting was commissioned to produce a heritage study of the site (see a summary of this report here). It pointed out  the heritage importance of both the site and the 1881 Katoomba Railway Station. The last surviving example of an "austerity" station on the western line.

In the meantime, despite the publicly and officially endorsed plans for the site, Council produced a new plan for the Railway Goods Yard site that met with fierce community opposition. It also inspired artists such as John Ellison to present their take on the proposal (see black and white cartoon above). The Council proposal coincided with a large full page spreads in the Blue Mountains Gazette promoting their cause. In the end, it could not be sustained past one passionate public meeting where the community voiced its opposition with considerable fervour.

In 2002, Council invited the Charrette team back and a proposal was developed for a shared space that heavily compromised any plans for public space.

Since then any plans or hopes for the site have virtually disappeared and it has largely remained dormant.

That was until this year when it became one of the venues for the annual Winter Magic Festival. While the rest of Katoomba is liable to be experiencing a southerly whistling up from the valley, the Goods Yard is protected by the southerly stone wall. In short, it is a sun trap. Despite the unsympathetic nature of the surface, the use of the site was a great success with large crowds enjoying the sunshine at various times of the day. The Festival managment recently received correspondence from Mountains Outreach Community Services (MOCS) who presented kids' activities throughout the day. They have been coming to Winter Magic for years and said this was their most successful and enjoyable year. You can see Liz Smith's email below.

Letter from Mountains Outreach Community Services
I keep meaning to send you an email about the big success the day was for MOCS. The old rail yard was the perfect spot for families and children – it was close to the station, a big semi enclosed space away from the pressing crowds, other family oriented activities going on there too and blessed with sunshine for most of the day! We had the most families visit ever – about 200. I think it is vital that WM in future years has a similar dedicated family friendly space – the same one would be ideal!

Children's Community Development Worker
Mountains Outreach Community Service

NB Special thanks to Neale Towart for the abridged version of the Christison Report