MOOROOPNA RAILWAY STATION ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRECINCT
35 & 70 YOUNG STREET MOOROOPNA, GREATER SHEPPARTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
Mooroopna Railway Station has the potential to contain moderate archaeological significance and moderate archaeological potential to provide information on the character of the earlier elements of the Mooroopna Station. The concrete strips from the camping area are still evident, along with some of the power poles, however, this is undated in the site card. The Stationmasters house to the east can be discerned from a levelled area and scatters of domestic artefacts down the slope to a billabong to the south.
Updated 08/08/2024
Updated 08/08/2024
Updated 08/08/2024
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MOOROOPNA RAILWAY STATION ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRECINCT - History
Located on the western side of the Goulburn River and adjoining Shepparton, the township of Mooroopna was formed by the sale of private allotments by W.S. Archer, who settled on a small farm there in 1860 (Allom Lovell & Associates, 2004). Archer sold town lots in 1874, following the subdivision of pastoral runs for farm selections in the early 1870s (Monash University, 2015).
The fertile soils enabled Mooroopna to become a successful agricultural town, with fruit and cereals the main crops. Mooroopna was also the first town in the region to be supplied with articulated water in 1876 (Allom Lovell & Associates, 2004). However, the arrival of the railway line to Shepparton meant that Mooroopna did not have the same population boom (Victorian Places, 2018). A colonial government scheme which provided a bonus for the planting of fruit trees and vines ensured that orchards boomed, and further bonuses were also offered for fruit production and mechanisation. In 1903 over 1,000 acres of land were being cultivated for fruit trees (Australian Handbook and Almanac, 1904).
Mooroopna Railway Station, 70 Young Street, Mooroopna was opened with the line in 1880, with the station building erected in 1881 (Ward & Donelly, 1982). A goods shed and gatekeepers cottage were also erected around this time. The original 1881 station building was replaced in 1913. The building was noted as being an Edwardian structure, with a simple weatherboard exterior, red brick chimney and a steeply pitched galvanised corrugated steel roof.
During the interwar period, Mooroopna’s population growth was driven by the opening of the Ardmona fruit cannery in 1922 which operated for the next eighty years (Victorian Places, 2018; Allom Lovell & Associates, 2004). A camp site was created near the station by the Ardmona Company to house its seasonal worker, while timber milling in Mooroopna gradually declined, ending in 1988 (Victorian Places, 2018).
The stationmaster was removed in 1978 and the ancillary structures have since been removed. The station building was destroyed by fire in January 2018 and the remaining structures subsequently demolished (Travers, 2018). The Mooroopna Railway Station is listed on the City of Greater Shepparton Heritage Overlay (HO54).MOOROOPNA RAILWAY STATION ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRECINCT - Interpretation of Site
Evidence of the former configuration of the railway yards can be seen in the extensive area of ballast and remnants of rail and sleepers. Part of the Goods Platform shows the separate arrangements for domestic freight south of the station compared with the sidings for the cannery on the north side of the main tracks. The concrete strips from the camping area are still evident, along with some of the power poles. The Stationmasters house to the east can be discerned from a leveled area and scatters of domestic artefacts down the slope to a billabong to the south.
Heritage Inventory Description
MOOROOPNA RAILWAY STATION ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRECINCT - Heritage Inventory Description
Surviving features include the station platform, an associated goods platform and shed, planted trees, levelled areas where former departmental residence stood to the east of the station building, and concrete footings from a storage shed. Mooroopna Railway Station yard contains a still operating passenger platform and a small discontinued goods platform immediately to its south. There are a number of former sidings to the north, including the line which once ran into the Ardmona fruit canning factory. The Ardmona Cannery Heritage Overlay HO321 area is located to the north of the Mooroopna Station and does not extend into the proposed works area of the Shepparton corridor Upgrade. East of the station is a level area with remnant garden shrubs, that is likely to have been a Departmental Residence near the level crossing on Young Street. Building debris are evident over a wide area south of the station where there is a steep drop off to the floodplain and evidence of land filling. There are likely to be buried foundations from the former station buildings, Departmental Residences, outbuildings and signal and points installations. Stumps from the stationmaster house are evident as are bricks from the chimneys of this and other structures.
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