Feature Image: Redhen334.
For the past seven years, one of Australia’s most significant surviving pieces of railway history has sat unused alongside the tracks in Adelaide’s west.
Now, as it marks 170 years, the heritage-listed Alberton Railway Station building has been carefully restored and reopened, with more than $1.4 million spent bringing the landmark back into use.
Recognised as Australia’s oldest surviving station building at an operational railway station, Alberton was one of the original stops on the railway between Adelaide and Port Adelaide.
Source: National Railway Museum.
The line was South Australia’s first steam railway, opening at 1856 at a time when rail travel was beginning to change the way people move between the city and the Port.
Despite trains continuing to stop at Alberton, the historic station building itself had been unused since 2019 after age-related deterioration and termite damage took its toll.
Over the past year, around 160 workers have been involved in a restoration led by Heritage Architect Richard Woods and carried out by G-Force Building & Consulting.
The heritage services manager of G-Force Kim Lukomski said that rather than simply replacing the old with the new, the project has retained as much of the station’s original fabric as possible.
“I really hope you enjoy the space now that it’s been restored to something that can be utilised really well. It used to be something that couldn’t be used at all, and now it looks like its a lovely open space that can be used by the community,” he said.
Interior of the train station. Credit: Redhen334.
Jarrah floorboards that had escaped termite damage have been repurposed into an exterior feature wall on the new amenities room, while two original fanlight window frames and sections of skirting have also survived.
The station’s internal ceiling and walls, detailed brickwork and locally quarried bluestone remain, while new doors, windows and flooring were made to closely reflect the original building.
Western red cedar was used for new doors and frames, alongside blackbutt timber flooring, acoustic boards and exposed concrete.
But some of the most interesting parts of the project weren’t discovered until work was already underway.
The station building had been left abandoned for seven years. Credit: Department of Infrastructure and Transport.
Hidden throughout the 170-year-old building were masons’ tools, handmade nails, a railway spike and a ticket book dating back to 1903.
Workers also discovered a concealed water tank inside the ceiling cavity.
The tank predates mains water at the station and was used for domestic purposes before the building was connected to the water supply in 1869. Rather than covering it back up, it has now been deliberately left exposed as part of the restored building.
The hope is that Alberton’s next chapter will be less about preserving its past and more about making use of it.
“The building suffered when it was boarded up,” heritage architect Richard Woods said.
“The most important thing for a heritage building is to use it, actively. It’s not enough for it to be a museum or a curiosity, it’s more important for it to be actively used.”
That sentiment is shared by Christie Anthony, co-owner of nearby café The Pear.
“I hope it provides another space, a beautiful exquisite historic space, that’s well respected by everyone, and used as a place of meeting, as a place of making, as a place of thinking and dreaming,” she said.
“And I think it’s wonderful that it’s being turned back to the community.”
Alberton Railway Station
