General News
7 July, 2024
Rail reno reveals valuable heritage
A valuable discovery has come to light during repairs to the former Horsham Railway Station, built in 1879.
Cracks in the building, now used by Horsham U3A members, led to VicTrack removing pristine-condition redgum foundation posts to replace them with concrete ones.
Horsham historian Bob McIlvena said the condition of the redgum stumps was amazing considering they had been in the ground 145 years.
The renovations also revealed pristine-condition bricks one metre below floor level, believed to date back to the 1870s. These were part of the station structure and made at the Sawyer family's Horsham brickworks.
History book, A Story of Horsham, compiled by Brian Brooke and Alan Finch, stated that Horsham's original shire hall, Anglican church, Catholic convent, hospital and railway station were some of the buildings which used Sawyer bricks.
They were made in a factory at the south end of Firebrace Street which opened in 1874. The brickworks continued until after the Second World War.
The bricks, made from clay from the Wimmera River, were shaped by hand and dried for three months before firing for 10 days in batches of 50,000 in a kiln fired by 33 cord - 128 cubic feet or more than 3.6 cubic metres - of wood.
The railway station, with a two-storey wooden signal box nearby, also had a refreshment room in its early years of operation. The rooms are no longer used.
VicTrack also gave money for Horsham U3A to install new split-level air conditioners in a former station waiting room, which is now used by card players and sewing groups, and in an art-classes studio.
Mr McIlvena, historian and staunch Horsham U3A member, said that discovering the pristine bricks connected Horsham people to a significant period of the city's development and was a reminder of its rich heritage.
Horsham U3A runs 32 courses each week and has about 200 members.