Werris Creek

The Railway Station at Werris Creek has been a major rail junction in northern NSW for well over a century. Anyone who has ever travelled through NSW to Tamworth or Narrabri will know Werris Creek. It's where the combined train from Central separates to take travellers both north or north-west. Travellers and smokers will know it best as the breathing spot on a long journey where they can witness train shunting in action. Just forty minutes to Tamworth in the North and about twenty minutes from the agricultural centre Quirindi, Werris Creek is situated within the Parry Shire in New England, in the Heart of NSW Big Sky Country.

The decision to build a line from Werris Creek to Gunnedah was made by the New South Wales Parliament on the evening of the 26th April 1877. This decision marked the overturning of long standing policy not to build branch lines before the completion of the three mail lines; the Great Northern, Great Western and Great Southern lines. It signalled a boom in Australian branch lines and in the significant increase in the productivity and popularity of the railway. The line reached Gunnedah (the home of Dorothea McKeller) in September 1879.

At Werris Creek, the former Department of Railways (now StateRail) not only gave rise to the physical fabric of the town, but also provided its psychological framework and instilled a set of moral values that affected everyday life. Werris Creek has the distinction of being both the first and the last railway town in northern NSW and epitomises all aspects of the rail industry, including the sometimes dangerous aspects of railway work in the past. A number of former railway workers, killed through railway operations, are buried at Werris Creek. The railway institutions in Australia helped to form a working class culture and, as a one-industry town, Werris Creek has been identified as a centre where the railway working culture has flourished.

Past, present and future - a timeline

		1877	Work on branch line from Werris Creek commenced
		Sept 1879	Line reaches Gunnedah
		Oct 1879	Platform finished
		1884	Railway Refreshment Room (RRR) tender awarded
		Nov 1884	RRR Opened
		March 1885	Adjacent platform built
		Jan 1886	'Great Northern Railway Junction' operational
		1893	Footbridge built
		1889	Gas works operational
		1892	Verandah on eastern side extended
		1896	Timetable altered
		1897	Moree branch line operational
		1899	Manila branch line operational
		1902	Inverell branch line operational
		1906	Pokataroo branch line operational
		1908	Walgett branch line operational
		1911	Second story added to RRR
		1917	Decision to make Werris Creek the Northern Headquarters of Mechanical Branch signals boom years
		1923	Binnaway to Werris Creek line opened
		1923	Second story added to Station building
		1939	Additional sleeping quarters added
		1958	Explosion in Single Street kills two people and breaks every window in the Station building
		1960	Diesel takes over from steam
		1972	RRR closed after 88 years of service
		2001	NSW Minister for Transport Carl Scully announces a grant of $1.3 million towards the Australian Railway Monument (ARM) at Werris Creek
		2002	Appointment of Project facilitators, commencement of Australian Railway Monument Project.
		2005	Monument opens