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Ever dreamed of running your own restaurant? What about one inside a beautifully restored 109-year-old railway dining carriage in regional South Australia?
That’s exactly the opportunity now on offer in Burra, where volunteers behind the historic Burra Railway Station precinct are searching for someone to take the reins of Edie, a fully restored 1917 Commonwealth Railways dining car that has been transformed into a unique hospitality venue.
The wooden carriage, officially known as ED22, was originally built in 1917 and spent part of its life travelling along Australia’s Commonwealth railway network.
Exactly where it travelled remains a mystery, but Edie eventually ended up at Peterborough’s Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre, where she was left languishing in a shed.
In 2017, the Friends of the Burra Railway Station bought the carriage for just $1.
By that point, Edie was in a seriously dilapidated state.
Five years of work later, volunteers had restored the historic carriage and brought her back to life as a functioning dining space.
“She is a 1917 Commonwealth Railways dining car, so in her lifetime she would have been on any of the Commonwealth railway lines,” shared volunteer Sue Ryan. “We’ve got no particular history about which one she was on, but we can assume that she was attached to a locomotive and on any of the Commonwealth lines.
“When she came into our life, she was at Peterborough Steamtown, which is a railway museum. She was just languishing in a shed there, and we bought her for a dollar. So when I send you the photos, you’ll see what we got for a dollar. She was very, very dilapidated. We got her in 2017 and then, five years later, we’d restored her, and she’s a functioning dining car again. Amazing, not moving anywhere.”
Now, Edie features seating for between 15 and 24 guests, tables for four, club chairs and an attached commercial kitchen, creating a dining venue unlike most others in the state.
The carriage and surrounding Burra Railway Station precinct have already hosted high teas, group dining, private events and special experiences, with the team also catering for visiting travel groups.
But the volunteers behind the project now want someone else to take the business into its next chapter.
Sue is one of the small group of volunteers who have helped keep the project running, but with just four or five regular volunteers, most of whom are in their 70s, the team knows it can’t continue doing everything forever.
“We put out a media release a couple of weeks ago because we are working with the local council and Regional Development Australia,” shared Sue. “We’re watching the potential of the business building up, so with the Regional Development board and the council, they’ve helped us put together an expression of interest.
“We’re outsourcing the catering and looking to lease the carriage to somebody to run it as a business and build it up from what we’ve started. We think the potential is there for them to build a viable business.
“That’s important for the future because we want to ensure that the station is looked after. The station was a five-year restoration project before Edie, and we want to make sure that it doesn’t get run down again.”
And there is already evidence that the quirky venue has plenty of potential. The team has bookings stretching into next year and is currently on the books of three travel companies that regularly bring groups to the carriage.
Edie has also become a drawcard for railway enthusiasts visiting Burra, while the team has deliberately made the precinct family-friendly, with activities for children around the station.
“We’re also a very popular tourism destination for railway buffs. People come particularly because they’re interested in trains, train stations and railway history.
“We’ve also deliberately made it very child-friendly, so there’s quite a bit of child-friendly activity to do around Edie and the station. That is an attraction for people because Burra is a tourist town anyway, but it brings people here and hopefully they stay a bit longer, have a better experience and tell other people about it.
“That kind of impact is not to be ignored.”
The group also makes a point of spending locally, using local tradies, cleaners and suppliers wherever possible. So for a new operator, there is plenty of room to build on what is already there.
The carriage itself provides the kind of setting that would be difficult to recreate from scratch, combining original railway history with a functioning commercial kitchen and an intimate dining space.
And while the volunteers don’t know exactly where Edie travelled during her railway days, they’re more interested in making sure she continues travelling into the future, just in a slightly different way.
The expression of interest is now open for someone to lease Edie and take over the catering and hospitality operation, with the aim of growing the venue into a viable regional business while protecting the historic railway station precinct for years to come.
Edie
Where: 9/10 Railway Terrace, Burra SA 5417
For more information, click here.
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