Darling Harbour – Sydney’s Perishable Yard

While there was plenty of action around Sydney station, Darling Harbour and its wharves were dominated by ancient 19 class, built before the turn of the century. These 0-6-0s shunted wagons for many years and were some of the last steam trains operating in NSW. As with Sydney Terminal, they were an indispensable part of Sydney, with many railfans flocking to the area to get the cityscape or Pyrmont Power Station in their photos.

As you can see, the skyline is very different from now! If you visit Darling Harbour today, you are going to see Light Rail, and Entertainment Venues, plus a great restaurant and shopping precinct. While this has been there for many years, it wasn’t always this way. About the only part left is the warehouses behind the entertainment centre and the light rail which runs along what was the far tracks of the yard. Much of the wharf area is now designated Barangaroo, with its restaurant and office developments.

Back in the 1970’s and beyond, this area was a huge goods yard, where perishable and other goods arrived from around NSW to be distributed to outlets in Sydney, or exported overseas. The area commenced operation in the early days of the colony, being named after Governor Darling in the early 1800’s. Once train lines were established in the mid 1850’s a large goods yard was developed on the site.

In 1970, my first year of employment, I used to spend Fridays at Sydney Tech, and the railway line from Sydney station to Darling Harbour travelled right underneath. I also remember that year Her Majesty’s Theatre burnt to the ground, and recall seeing the smouldering roofless structure from the roof of the Tech College.

The tunnel from Sydney Station to Darling Harbour was built in 1855, making it the oldest Railway tunnel in NSW and possibly Australia. Perishable freight from the Illawarra would terminate at Darling Harbour, and it was used for the locos to return to the depot at Everleigh. This tunnel is now abandoned but still there.

The light rail starts its journey at Sydney Station, and after passing through Haymarket and the Entertainment Centre joins the old line. This continues on through the original goods line to Haberfield.

The current light rail uses the far two tracks where the ancient 19 class is pushing some perishable wagons back. You can see this by the direction of the smoke.

The yard was extremely busy, with lots of arrivals and departures either by way of the goods lines (now the light rail) or a line from near Sydney Terminal that passed under Broadway.

Pyrmont Power Station towered over the northern end of Darling Harbour. By the time I visited as part of my training in 1970, it was being used as back up in case the city lost power. One generator was kept working, so emergencies could be handled. It is now long gone, as is the White Bay power station.

Towards the docks were the cold stores, where perishable good s would terminate. There were several trains operating as fast goods with bogie wagons designed to move perishables to Sydney as fast as possible. One of the more famous was 32 Milk which started in Junee and picked up more milk wagons on its way to Darling Harbour.

Often a 30T would shunt Jones Street Wharf, requiring extra traction to lift the empties up the steep grade to the washing plant.

Visiting the area to take photos of the trains was not as easy as it might seem. For one there were constant shunting movements and you had to be alert to not be in the path of an approaching train. This is understandable, as the job of shunter was a risky one, and there were many injuries on the site. Shunters would ride on match trucks, and jump in between wagons to decouple the 3 link couplings used in those days. In the modern are, O H & S would probably frown on this.

Then there was the large amount of valuable goods, which some unscrupulous characters might pilfer. There were Railway Detectives patrolling the area and if they stopped you, it could result in an interrogation. We countered this by visiting the Railway Headquarters in Wynyard and obtaining an “Indemnity Form”, an official document giving permission to be on railway property.

One night, I visited with a friend to get some time exposures, After setting up our tripods and obtaining a couple of nice photos using fill in flash, the detectives arrived in their suits. How dumb were we. Talk about advertising our presence with flash bulbs!

We were questioned and then asked to leave, marking the end of the outing. On occasion a 19 could work up quite a storm when shunting, with lovely polluting smoke colouring the skyline. Not something that is fashionable today.

Pyrmont Bridge still exists and these days is a pedestrian crossing of Darling Harbour. The bridge is periodically opened for tourists to observe and occasionally tall ships pass through as well.

The line from the Jones Bay Wharf was quite steep. There was a quite a grade here and a 30 class would really struggle to get its load up the hill.

Some of the warehouses and other structures on the Western side of the area still exist but have been converted into living areas. The powerhouse museum is one of them.

In many ways, it is sad that all of this no longer exists and is just a memory. Sure, the light rail still uses the old goods line heading beyond Darling Harbour, and I believe you can still see the occasional rail protruding from the roadway in the wharf area, but this thriving hub of commerce that powered the colony for many years no longer serves that function.

Interestingly, on researching this article I discovered there is not a lot of information apart from the photos of rail buffs. I am not sure how many people know that we accidentally recorded the history of NSW where others never thought of it – all by accident.

Our new book, “Smoke” contains over 270 photos of NSW steam trains. 168 pages of hard cover Coffee Table format available at https://wheretheressmoke.com.au 

There is a great video showing the lives of those who worked in the harbour that is well worth watching.