Timber Railway - site

Statement of Significance

• The place has aesthetic value as a wide street that provides a distinctive streetscape between Kent Street and the beach.
• The place has historic value as its alignment is associated with the location of the former railway which was significant to the development of the town in the late 19th century.
• The place has social value as Railway Terrace is one of the main streets in the town where the community gather particularly to socialise at the beach and surrounding retail premises.

Physical Description

All evidence of the former railway has been removed from the street.

History

Although the town of Rockingham was surveyed in 1847, the town and its surrounds experienced only minimal development until the 1870s. Prior to 1869, a small jetty, approximately thirty feet long, had been constructed out into the waters of Cockburn Sound to bring supplies to the settlers in the district. By 1872, a new, longer deep sea jetty was built at Rockingham to ship timber sourced from the adjacent forests. The jetty was located slightly to the west of the present day Railway Terrace although not as far to the west as the current [2017] jetty.
The timber was sent to Rockingham jetty on a wooden-railed tramway which was roughly aligned with the present day Patterson Road. The timber railways were inefficient, and after an injection of capital the timber rails were replaced with iron rails imported from England in 1878.
In the early 1890s, with the discovery of gold at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie the economy of Western Australia boomed, with timber exports from Rockingham expanding greatly. In 1898, increases in shipping necessitated extending the main jetty at Rockingham. Other smaller jetties were built alongside the main jetty to service the growing trade.
The opening of a railway line from Bunbury to Perth and hence to Fremantle in 1893 limited the timber trade in Rockingham. It was now easier and cheaper to supply the metropolitan market for timber by rail to Perth or Fremantle rather than railing it to Rockingham and then lightering it to Perth or Fremantle. The completion of deep-water harbour facilities at Fremantle in 1897, meant that Rockingham’s function as a port ended by 1908.
The railway line remained at Rockingham serving the town and district but its importance dwindled with the increased uptake of motor vehicles and the tracks were removed in 1949.
Railway Terrace had always been located adjacent to the railway line and with the removal of the tracks the road was widened to enable parking on both sides of the road and in its centre.
The railway lines were removed in the late 1940s.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: Low
Authenticity: Low

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Last Update

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