Trains

It isn’t a road trip if I wasn’t trying to photograph trains!

We’d been driving for a few hours before we passed out first one – a loaded grain train bound for Geelong.

A few hours later we found an empty grain train headed back west for another load.

Shortly followed by a load of containers headed the other way for Melbourne.

And then on our way home, a load of steel beams and plate.

Abandoned stations

The only passenger service along the line is twice weekly The Overland, which runs through without stopping.

Inverleigh is just a timber shed.

As is Pura Pura.

At least Westmere still has grain silos.

And Maroona has a disused platform.

And abandoned towns

The Pleurisy Plains are grain and grazing country, and the townships that did exist have been emptying out.

There was nothing much to see at Nerrin Nerrin.

Mininera Primary School is long gone.

Westmere once had a general store, but it’s for sale.

And Streatham – it’s still got an Infant Welfare Centre, but only open two mornings each month.

Wind farms

Windy plains are good for one thing – wind farms.

80 turbines at the Dundonnell Wind Farm north of Mortlake.

75 turbines at the Ararat Wind Farm.

Just two at the Maroona Wind Farm.

And 43 turbines at the Berrybank Wind Farm, with another 26 being added.

Power lines

The power generated by wind farms has to go somewhere, so high voltage transmission lines cross the otherwise empty plains.

The big one is the 500 kV twin circuit Moorabool – Portland line, constructed in the 1980s to transmit electricity generated from burning brown coal to Alcoa’s aluminium smelter at Portland.

The oldest is the single circuit Ballarat to Terang 220 kV line.

But they’ve recently been joined by the 132 kV line that links the Stockyard Hill Wind Farm to the Haunted Gully Terminal Station.

Which passes beneath the older 220 kV line via a tangle of pylons outside Lismore.

Telephone exchanges

In the days before mobile phones, copper wires were the only communication link to the outside world.

Maroona has a telephone exchange not much larger than the outdoor dunny beside it.

As does Nerrin Nerrin.

Berrybank has a shed a little larger.

Streatham’s exchange is bigger again, but it serves an actual town.

But Pura Pura – there is nothing around for miles!

CFA stations

Even with the population leaving the plains, the risk of bushfire is still there.

The CFA station at Nerrin Nerrin is just a little tin shed.

The station at Mininera is far more modern.

As is the one at Langi Logan.

Which replaced the tin shed around the corner.

And finally – Mount Elephant

Every time I’ve gone for a trip on The Overland I’ve pointed out Mount Elephant – a 380-metre-high conical breached scoria cone formed by a dormant volcano, located 1 km from the town of Derrinallum. So since I was in the area, I paid a visit.

Turns out it’s only open for a few hours each Sunday, but I was lucky – they were just about to open!

The visitors centre is located at the base of the mountain.

The access track follows the alignment of a dismantled railway siding.

Which served a ballast quarry, now used as a car park.

The walk to the edge of the crater takes 30 minutes, with the walk around the edge adding an extra hour.

But since it was a stinking hot day, we only made it halfway up.

So we’ll have to visit again!

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Building everywhere

The new footbridge at Footscray station was finally finished.

But the ‘roof’ was anything but – perforated panels let water through every time it rained!

In 2013 the bridge was partially demolished to make room for Regional Rail Link.

The Olympic Doughnut stall hiding in the shadows fared better.

Construction worked around the van until it relocated to a brand new store in 2014, remaining in business until the retirement of owner Nick Tsiligiris in 2017.

At the corner of Royal Parade and Flemington Road in Parkville, demolition of the former Royal Dental Hospital commended.

Abandoned since 2003 when the hospital moved around the corner to Carlton.

The site is now occupied by the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

Construction of the 717 Bourke Street office tower in Docklands were underway, with a new footbridge over Wurundjeri Way connecting it to Southern Cross Station.

TV station GTV9 moved their Melbourne studio from Richmond to the completed building in 2011.

Scenes that are gone

The skyline of Southbank hit pause between the completion of Eureka Tower in 2006, and Prima Pearl in 2014.

But today the even taller Australia 108 dominates the scene.

Back in 2010 V/Line trains to Geelong used the Werribee line tracks.

Since 2015 they have travelled via the new Melbourne suburbs of Wyndham Vale and Tarneit, follow the completion of Regional Rail Link.

While trains to Bendigo shared the Sunbury line tracks as far as Sunshine, passing through the Anderson Road level crossing at Albion.

The level crossing having been replaced by a road under rail bridge in 2014.

Changing of the trains

Hitachi trains were still clunking their way around Melbourne, like this one arriving into the old West Footscray station.

But brand new X’Trapolis trains were entering service, ready to replace them.

Meanwhile the Siemens trains fleet couldn’t stay out of trouble – another spate of braking issues saw additional restrictions applied to the fleet.

The issue finally resolved in 2011 following the installation of sanding gear to the trains.

Melbourne was also in the middle of the change from Metcard to Myki, but the reliability of the new technology left something to be desired.

Metcard being finally switched off in December 2012.

Rail freight

QR National was running colourful freight trains into Melbourne with their fleet of diesel locomotives.

The company rebranded itself as Aurizon in 2012, and quit intermodal rail freight in 2017, to instead focus on coal haulage.

Meanwhile rival freight operator Pacific National was busy clearing their yards of life expired freight wagons.

Cutting them up to take advantage of high scrap metal prices.

And track maintenance

When Metro Trains Melbourne took over the operation of Melbourne’s rail network, they made some big promises – improved track maintenance being one of them.

They ordered some shiny new spoil containers to help in the task rebuilding Melbourne’s tracks.

Replacing rotten timber sleepers with sturdier concrete ones.

But given how run down the network was, it made little difference – Metro had ‘inherited a dog’.

Down at Flinders Street Station the wheels were turning slowly – it took six weeks to repair a storm damaged ceiling.

But progress at Southern Cross Station was even slower – the $5 million in repairs was yet to start.

The only upside – the ‘temporary’ CRT next train displays were finally being removed, years after the station had been ‘officially’ opened.

The joys of a public-private partnership!

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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Google Maps

Early years

The neat grid of streets stand out against the flat grasslands, 7 km south of Rockbank and 10 km north of Werribee.

Land Victoria

All with British names:

• Downing Street,
• Mayfair Avenue,
• Eaton Court,
• Oxford Street,
• Shelly Court,
• Wandsworth Street,
• McMillan Parade,
• Finchley Court,
• The Mall,
• Sheridan Close,
• Stratford Road

Volume 2 – The Environmental Thematic History from the Shire of Melton Heritage Study by David Moloney explains how the estate came to be:

Rosedale Estate, Chartwell (commonly known as the ‘Chartwell Estate’) was a 1957 subdivision of 491 township sized allotments situated on the eastern corner of Boundary Road and Downing Street (Crown Allotment 5, Section 4, Parish of Pywheitjorrk).

The English mansion Chartwell, best known for its twentieth century ownership by Sir Winston Churchill, overlooks ‘The Weald of Kent’: a rolling green woodland. If the name Chartwell was meant to inspire images of such British landscapes, the Melton South Chartwell – isolated, flat, dry, and totally devoid of trees – was a grand fraud. The Estate’s street names – The Mall, Oxford Street, Downing Street, Mayfair Avenue, Eaton Court, Wandsworth Street, Stratford Street, Macmillan Parade, and Finchley Court – seem to be intended to inspire rich images of England. Most are famous English streets or places; others, including Macmillan Parade (probably named after Harold Macmillan, the English Prime Minister who assumed office in 1957), had more contemporary associations.

The original subdividers, an English couple, went bankrupt before selling the entire estate, which was then taken over by a real estate company. The estate was marketed to new English migrants in western suburbs migrant hostels, many of whom purchased their allotment ‘site unseen’ on the basis of the estate’s proximity to Melbourne, and affordability.

An example of these advertisements is this from 1964.

The Age, 3 November 1964

With land still on sale a decade later.

The Age, 8 December 1973

The land being zoned residential as late as 1985.

1985 Planning Scheme

Development pains

The 491 lot estate could have housed 1500 people, but the land wasn’t suitable for development:

The original approval of the estate in 1957 had apparently been an oversight on the part of a Council which at that time had little experience with legal processes for residential subdivision. The estate did not have water and, more significantly, sewerage; the high rock bedrock of the district would not accommodate 491 septic tanks.

Following the introduction of the Melbourne Metropolitan Interim Development Order (Extension Area No. 1) in 1971, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works refused 18 applications for detached houses in the Rosedale Estate, with the Town Planning Appeals Tribunal hearing three appeals.

In 1976 the subject of development was revisited by Earle and Partners, as part of their Melton-Sunbury Peripheral Towns Study for the Melton-Sunbury Interim Co-ordinating Committee:

We recommend that no public effort be made to improve the services of water or sewerage to Chartwell and that any further building be subject to satisfactory sewerage, drainage and water being provided on the site.

It is expected that this will require a degree of site amalgamation and could result in a total population of 300-400 people.

Existing residents were against further development:

The Board received a letter signed by ten residents on November 16, 1977 stating that they considered that ‘any further development would create unbearable living conditions for those already living on the estate’. The letter noted the problem of roads being ‘impassable for long periods during wet weather’, and the general lack of facilities. The residents were particularly concerned about the lack of sewerage and drainage and believe that a health hazard will result if further development occurs.

But in 1977 the Board’s Planning Committee resolved that the area had been accepted for ultimate development, and that to achieve that it would be necessary to provide water supply and sewerage facilities.

This decision was reverted in 1981, when the Board and the Council commenced a joint study into the future of the estate, with a view to restructuring it and ultimately issuing permits for detached houses on the restructured lots. Provision of a water supply was investigated.

Possible sources of water for a reticulated town supply have been investigated. The first was by connection to the Board’s main at Cowies Hill. Preliminary estimates indicated that such a service would cost in the vicinity of $1,000,000. A second alternative was the provision of a main extending from Rockbank. Cost estimates in respect of this service are likely to be in excess of $500,000.

The alternative to a reticulated water supply would be the provision of water storage tanks to each house. Chartwell has the lowest rainfall in the Melbourne region with an average annual rainfall of 400-500 mm. Assuming a roof area of 150 spare metres the maximum amount of water that could be collected in one year is 75,000 litres (16,500 gallons). Not allowing for leakage and evaporation, this would permit 205 litres to be used per day. For a house occupied by 4 persons this represents 51 litres (11 gallons) per person per day. The State Rivers and Water Supply Commission have advised that each person in a household requires 113 litre (25 gallons) per day minimum. In the metropolitan area the average per capita consumption is 160 litres per day (35 gallons).

It appears then that a severe shortage of water is indicated if reliance were to be placed on roof fed tank supplies. It would not be possible to maintain gardens and the use of water for laundry purposes would be severely restricted. In addition to the inconvenience caused by continual water rationing and the necessity to have water delivered by truck at high cost in times of drought, the lack of means with which to fight fires is an especially serious concern due to the estate’s isolation and restricted access.

A heavier use of the roads would exacerbate this poor condition due to the lack of drainage and the heavy impermeable soils which can cause roads to become impassable in this area.

Sewage being a sticking point.

In the absence of reticulated sewerage for the disposal of sewerage and household sullage, the usual system used is the septic tank. The heavy soils and poor drainage of this area therefore suggest that the disposal of effluent by soil absorption should desirably be carried out on much larger residential sites.

As was the lack of other ‘urban’ facilities.

It also appears that other facilities normally associated with a residential development are lacking in this area. No shops exist at Chartwell, the closest being located at Rockbank. The shopping facilities available at Rockbank are very limited, being only a general store, and residents in the area are required to travel to Melton, Werribee or Sunshine to satisfy most of their shopping needs.

No school exists at Chartwell so children living in the area are taken by bus to schools at Werribee. Whilst the Education Department has reserved a site within the Rosedale Estate for a school, the maximum development potential of the subdivision is well below that required to support a full primary school.

Public open space in the estate has not been developed.

The final decision being:

The Board therefore submitted that development at Chartwell would not be in accordance with the orderly and proper planning of the area or the western sector of Melbourne generally.

It intended that if development were to be permitted at Chartwell, a corresponding pressure and demand for the provision of water, sewerage and drainage services, upgrading of access, provision of educational facilities and other community services to the township would follow. The high capital cost of servicing Chartwell compared with its relatively low development potential under existing policies would be likely to lead to increased pressure for further urban zoning to justify such a large expenditure on them.

The Board therefore submitted that it would be preferable to prevent any development which may dissipate resources from the designated growth centres for the time being.

But despite this, by 1981 14 houses have been erected on 18 lots, of the total 464 residential allotments.

In 1982 one landowner took the Shire of Melton to the Victorian Ombudsman to appeal their rejection of a building permit.

“My wife and I are owners of a residential block of land at Rosedale Estate Chartwell which is in the Rockbank Riding of the Shire of Melton. We purchased the land ten years ago with the idea of building our own home on that land when next I was posted to the Melbourne area (I am a member of the RAAF). We came back to Melbourne in January of this year eager to build on our land only to find that the Melton Shire Council will not issue building permits and any attempt by us to secure a permit would be opposed by the MMBW. For the past ten years we have paid our rates and it seems we will be expected to carry on paying rates even though we are refused building permits.

If the Melton Shire Council cannot be forced to provide facilities and issue building permits could they be forced to buy the land from us thus enabling us to build elsewhere.”

The council reiterating the history of the estate.

“The Rosedale Estate, at Chartwell, was subdivided about 20 years ago. The Council of the day apparently did not require the subdivider to construct the streets. There seems to have been an arrangement whereby the subdivider was to provide water supply from underground sources, but the water proved to be unsuitable, both as to quality and quantity. Fourteen houses have been erected on the subdivision, and the owners are dependent on rainwater for their supply. Over the years some gravelling and minor maintenance of the streets has been provided to give the residents access to their properties. Electricity and telephone services are available, but the Estate is otherwise unserviced. Several years ago the Council tried to interest the then residents in a “self help” water supply scheme, but found that the majority were unwilling to participate in a scheme which would improve conditions for themselves and allow others to build there.

And the reasons for refusal.

The Council, as a planning authority in its own right, has granted permits for the erection of houses on various lots in the Estate, but similar applications to the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, as the regional planning authority have met with refusals. One or two house permits have been obtained on appeal, but other applicants have not pursued the matter following refusal.

The Council is certainly in sympathy with owners who wish to build on their land, but now feels that the Estate should be treated as an “old and inappropriate” subdivision. A joint study into the future of the Estate has been commenced with the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, in the hope that various parcels of lots can be consolidated into a very much smaller number of larger “rural residential” allotments. The study is only in its initial stages but, when it is sufficiently advanced, all property owners affected will be consulted to ascertain their views and perhaps suggest a range of alternative futures for the area.

To develop the Estate as it stands, to a normal residential standard, would require the expenditure of millions of dollars on the construction of the private streets, drains, sewers, and the provision of water supply. Much of this would be a direct cost to the owners of the properties. It would be many years, if ever, before the development of the Estate had a sufficient priority in the eyes of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission to qualify for Government assistance in the provision of water supply and sewerage.

In his letter, the complainant referred to payment of rates and the possibility of the Council buying his land. The land cannot be exempted from rating, and the Council has no need of the land for any municipal purpose. In the event of a restructuring scheme proceeding, as outlined earlier in this letter, there would presumably be an opportunity of selling the land to whichever authority may have the responsibility for implementing such a scheme or, alternatively of purchasing additional adjoining land to create a larger allotment.

The issue was finally resolved in 1992, following the implementation of the Chartwell Restructure Allotment Plan. The 491 lots were reduced to 62, the bulk being around 0.6 hectares in size, the exception being 14 already occupied by dwellings.

Chartwell Restructure Allotment Plan

In the years since, the number of houses on the estate has risen to 16.

And the future

In 2008 plans for the Outer Metropolitan Ring Road were made public, to connect the Hume Freeway at Kalkallo in the north, to the Princes Freeway south-west of Werribee.

But one problem for the residents of Chartwell – the freeway alignment went straight through the middle of the estate.

VicRoads Public Acquisition Overlay, via Land Victoria

The City of Melton made a submission to the ‘Delivering Melbourne’s Newest Sustainable Communities’ study.

The Chartwell Estate on Boundary Road is a small closer settlement of around 15-20 houses. The proposed alignment has a major impact upon this settlement, and would effectively see its complete destruction. This is likely to have significant social implications. Whilst Council appreciates that there are significant engineering constraints associated with the alignment of the OMR, the impact of this outcome should not be underestimated, and Council would urge VicRoads to explore whether there are alignment options which might see the OMR avoid Chartwell.

But the final route of the freeway was still pushed through the estate.

OMR Transport Corridor Design Sheet 4

A note on Public Acquisition Overlays

You might have noticed something a little odd about the Public Acquisition Overlays marked in yellow on this map – PAO3, PAO5 and PAO7.

VicRoads Public Acquisition Overlay, via Land Victoria

Turns out Public Acquisition Overlay numbers are only unique to the planning scheme that they belong to, and not unique across the state. In the case of Chartwell, the estate sits on the border of two:

The top half is the Melton Planning Scheme:

• PAO3: Outer Metropolitan Ring / E6 Transport Corridor
• PAO5: Western Grassland Reserves

While the bottom half the Wyndham Planning Scheme:

• PAO5: Outer Metropolitan Ring / E6 Transport Corridor
• PAO7: Western Grassland Reserves

Clear as mud?

And a note on the Western Grassland Reserve

The Western Grassland Reserve was established in 2009 to protect remnant grasslands, and offset urban sprawl, but only 9% of land has been acquired so far. So what’ll be finished first – freeway or grassland?

Sources

• Volume 2 – The Environmental Thematic History, the Shire of Melton Heritage Study, David Moloney
• Victorian Ombudsman, Quarterly Report, 30 September 1981

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Road trip!

An extended road trip through Western Victoria was on the agenda, starting down the Princes Highway to Warrnambool.

As I followed the daily freight train down to the container terminal at Warrnambool.

Then return to Melbourne.

I also stopped inspected a long list of abandoned stations along railway west to Adelaide.

Westmere.

Maroona.

Murtoa.

Stawell.

Pura Pura.

Dahlen.

I did see a few freight trains along the way – like this one at Lubeck.

And container wagons in the yard at Horsham.

A few stations had become home to freight wagons stored due to a lack of traffic – grain hoppers at Portland.

And louvred vans at Murtoa.

Out west are also a number of closed railway lines, like the route to Mount Gambier.

Closed in 1995, the level crossings were still in place but the tracks have been paved over.

While at Ararat I found the mothballed Avoca line that ran north to Dunolly.

After a decade lying idle, it was upgraded as part of the Murray Basin Rail Project and reopened to trains in 2018.

Chasing trains

The log train that once ran between Bairnsdale and Geelong is a common theme in my “photos from ten years ago” series, and this month is no different – this time we see the empty train passing through Corio at sunset.

The final log train ran in June 2009.

Back in 2009 V/Line trains were still painted red and blue, such as this Warrnambool bound service passing the abandoned station of Pirron Yallock, just west of Colac.

This was replaced by a grey and white livery in 2007, and the current PTV livery in 2017.

The other notable train I photographed was a refurbished Hitachi train way off the beaten track.

One would never expect to see a suburban train sitting under the roof at Ballarat station.

or headed along the tracks without any overhead wires.

Originally intended to have been retired following the 2006 Commonwealth Games, six Hitachi trains stayed in service with Connex Melbourne thanks to an explosion in patronage on the Melbourne suburban network.

In 2008 rust was found in the floors of the aging trains, which led to the trains being transferred to the Alstom Ballarat workshops for rectification works, which saw them back into service until retired for good in December 2013.

Construction

Work was continuing of the $36 million upgrade of North Melbourne station. The superstructure had been completed.

And the first section of concourse roof had assembled, ready to be slid into place along temporary tracks to it’s final home.

The new concourse was opened to passengers in November 2009.

Construction was also underway on a brand new station on the Craigieburn line at Coolaroo.

Tracks needed to be relocated to make room for the platforms, with the station eventually opening in June 2010.

Over at Southern Cross Station the ‘Yardmasters’ building was starting to take shape north of platform 5 and 6.

While the Myki rollout was slowly proceeding, with the discovery centre at Southern Cross closed for renovations.

So that working ticketing equipment could be installed.

It took until December 2009 for Myki to be accepted for travel on Melbourne trains, in a last ditch attempt to meet a “working by the end of 2009” pledge.

Finally, January 2009 saw an extended heatwave hit Melbourne crippling Melbourne’s rail network, leading to a parliamentary inquiry and a day of free travel for train passengers.

Ticket barriers were thrown open.

With signage at stations telling passengers there was no need to buy a ticket.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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The grid of proposed roads can be found in Melway Edition 1 on map 26 and 27.

In the decades since the land on the western side of the railway line has been developed, but the other side lays empty – aerial imagery from Google Maps shows a grid of dirt tracks.

So why has such a large subdivision sit empty for so long?

I found the answer earlier this year, when a paper titled “Solomon Heights: A Zombie Subdivision?” was published. From the abstract:

Solomon Heights, 10kms west of the centre of Melbourne, Australia, on what has now become prime riverside real estate, is a case in point. Although subdivided into a residential pattern during the 1920s, the site had been rezoned industrial in the mid-1950s under Melbourne’s first comprehensive city plan. It was thereafter left fallow, for reasons unclear, without basic urban services like water or sealed roads. Environmental social issues have since come to impact on the site, while landowners seek the opportunity to build.

The rest of the paper is well worth the read, as are these other links:

• Solomon Heights: A Zombie Subdivision? (Elizabeth Taylor, David Nichols, Victoria Kolankiewicz)
• Solomon Heights at Brimbank City Council
• Solomon Heights at Wikipedia

Other abandoned subdivisions

Turns out the list of abandoned subdivisions in Victoria is quite long – so many that I’ve spun them off into their own articles.

• Summerlands Estate on Phillip Island
• Rosedale Estate at Chartwell
• Burns Road Estate in Altona

As well as an overarching post covering the subject of ‘old and inappropriate subdivisions’ in Victoria.

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Let us start by taking a look at the incomplete interchange between the Tullamarine Freeway and the Western Ring Road at Airport West.

The intent of the initial stage of the Western Ring Road was to provide an alternate truck route between the Hume Highway and the Melbourne CBD, so the first section to open linked the Tullamarine Freeway and Pascoe Vale Road in 1992, followed by Pascoe Vale Road to Sydney Road in 1993.

I have hazy memories of childhood visits to Melbourne Airport, where on the way we passed beneath the incomplete freeway interchange.

In the years that followed, further sections of the Ring Road were opened in a piecemeal fashion:

• 1994: Greenborough Bypass to Plenty Road,
• July 1995: Ballarat Road to Keilor Park Drive,
• March 1996: Boundary Road to Ballarat Road,
• October 1996: Princes Freeway to Boundary Road.
• December 1996: Calder Freeway to Keilor Park Drive

As you can expect, a ring road that doesn’t form a complete ring isn’t very useful, so for many years the Tullamarine Freeway interchange remained in the state seen above.

Change finally came in 1997 when the ‘missing link’ of the Western Ring Road opened between the Tullamarine Freeway and the Calder Freeway, and the interchange took on a form that lasted just on 15 years.

The round of expansion in 1997 added new ramps to/from Melbourne Airport and the Western Ring Road towards Altona, the second of two 40 km/h limited ‘cloverleaf‘ ramps, and a pair of bridges to carry the collector/distributor lanes for southbound Ring Road traffic accessing the Tullamarine Freeway.

In the years that followed, the explosive growth in traffic using the Ring Road overwhelmed the interchange, in 2013 the interchange was expanded yet again as part of the M80 Ring Road upgrade project.

Changes to the interchange included:

• widening the Western Ring Road from two to four lanes in each direction,
• replacing the cloverleaf carrying southbound traffic from the Tullamarine Freeway to the westbound Ring Road by a new ramp flying over the top of the rest of the interchange,
• the southbound collector/distributor lane arrangement was replaced by a simpler ‘exit only’ setup,
• a new flyover was introduced north of the interchange to untangle northbound traffic bound for the Pascoe Vale Road exit from through traffic.

I wonder how long the current Western Ring Road interchange will remain in place, before it too becomes overwhelmed by induced traffic?

Footnote

In 2001 Paul Mees published the paper ‘The short term effects of Melbourne’s Western Ring Road‘ examined the effects of the freeway opening on economic growth in Melbourne’s west.

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A few years ago I stumbled on a Kentucky Fried Chicken advertisement from 1982, that listed all 35 restaurants scattered around Melbourne, as well as the three in Geelong.

In the years since, some didn’t change at all – the store in Ashburton went almost untouched until it was demolished in 2009.

The same applies to the store in Newport, which closed down by the Google Street View came past in 2007.

Others have just received new KFC branding over the original building, the the KFC in Highett.

However not all stores have survived, such as the original KFC at Frankston, which became a Mexican restaurant.

Up in Ferntree Gully a succession of different restaurants have occupied the former KFC.

In Thornbury the KFC moved to a new store next door, with the old building being split into two, with Subway and Cheesecake Shop moving in.

However the strangest conversion was in Seaford, where a dry cleaner took over the tiny take-away only Kentucky Fried Chicken store.

The full list

Here is the full list of KFC stores from the 1982 advertisement:

• Cnr High St & Carool Road, Ashburton
• Cnr Burwood & Albert Roads, Auburn
• 289 Carlisle Street, Balaclava
• 129a High Street, Belmont
• 845 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill
• 460 Geelong Road, Brooklyn
• Cnr Centre Road & Audsley Street, Clayton
• 137 Bell Street, Coburg
• 29 Lonsdale Street, Dandenong
• Cnr Darcy & Doncaster Roads, Doncaster
• Cnr Bell & Albert Streets, East Preston
• 1293 Sydney Road, Fawkner
• 930 Burwood Highway, Ferntree Gully
• 281 Smith Street, Fitzroy
• 368 Barkly Street, Footscray
• 14 Beach Street, Frankston
• 257 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley
• Cnr Lower Heidelberg Road & Villa Street, Heidelberg
• 1121 Nepean Highway, Highett
• Cnr High & Derby Streets, Kew
• 157 Nepean Highway, Mentone
• Cnr Mt Alexander Road & Hall Street, Moonee Ponds
• 450 Melbourne Road, Newport
• 91a Keilor Road, Niddrie
• 431 Princes Highway, Noble Park
• 217 Melbourne Road, North Geelong
• Cnr Varman Court & Whitehorse Road, Nunawading
• 638 North Road, Ormond
• 379 Chapel Street, Prahran
• Cnr High & Lemington Street, Reservoir
• 387 Maroondah Highway, Ringwood
• Cnr Sims Street & Beach Road, Sandringham
• 109 Nepean Highway, Seaford
• Cnr Dandenong & Police Roads, Springvale
• Cnr Princes Highway & St Georges Road, Corio
• 429a Ballarat Road, Sunshine
• 389 St Georges Road, Thornbury
• Cnr Boronia & Wantirna Roads, Wantirna

More photos can be found on Flickr.

Footnote

The abandoned KFC restaurant pictured at the top of the page is located on Princes Drive in Morwell – it doesn’t feature in the above list.

And more photos

I found a photo of the Guildford KFC on the Daily Telegraph website, along with photos of the KFC Preston grand opening day at Broadsheet.

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I started my hike from Picton Road, where I parked the car and loaded up my backpack with water and snacks, before wandering off into the dense bush.

After walking down into a gully then back out again, I found myself in a clearing.

There wasn’t any sign of the bridge at this point.

But I kept on wandering around.

And I eventually found a metal stanchion on the unfinished bridge sticking up above the tree line.

With my target in sight and the sun starting to go down, it was time to head back into the bush.

Eventually I came out into another clearing, but this time the metal stanchions were larger – I was on the right track.

I kept walking in the same direction, and finally – I found the bridge!

The 30 year old concrete still looks to be in good condition.

I headed up onto the bridge, and walked towards the dead end.

Fences prevented me from walking off the end.

Looking west from the bridge was another bridge – carrying Picton Road across the Nepean River.

And to the east was the advancing shadows of a setting sun.

With the moon now visible, it was time to head out of the bush before darkness fell, and find my car again.

Footnote

Here is the GPS tracklog on my adventure to find the unfinished bridge – it took me 30 minutes to walk the ~1.5 kilometres between my car and the bridge, using a Google Maps printout and the setting sun as a guide, and with a lot of wandering around in order to pinpoint which direction I was supposed to be walking in.

Also of note is how closely my return journey matched my inward hike – my sense of direction must have been working well that day!

A check of Google Maps shows a supposed unnamed road that I didn’t use – leading from Picton Road to the bridge, it looks to be a dirt track that passes through a nearby skydiving centre, then follows the unfinished alignment of the railway.

A construction photo

From the Macarthur Chronicle Facebook page – an undated photo showing the southern end of the bridge under construction.

Further reading

Wikipedia has more on the history of the Maldon – Dombarton railway line.

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A closer look at the Melways shows that a direct alignment through the suburbs of Ardeer and Sunshine West is possible: an electrical transmission line cuts right through the middle of the suburb, with a linear park making use of the otherwise idle land.

Down at ground level the space for a freeway is still there: this is looking south from Glengala Road.

Turning to the north, only a single house blocks the open alignment: 164 Glengala Road, Sunshine West.

A check of the Land Victoria maps shows that this house has a conventional Residential 1 Zone (R1Z) applied to it, with the rest of the open reserve coming under the Public Park and Recreation Zone (PPRZ).

So with all this wide open space, why wasn’t the Western Ring Road built straight down the middle? To answer that question, I dug through my collection of old Melbourne street directories – as well as showing how much the city has grown, they often depict freeway proposals that never get built.

I hit paydirt in Edition 26 of the UBD directory, dated 1983, with map 68 showing a big dotted line running through the middle of Sunshine West and Ardeer.

Digging back further to the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan, the alignment of the Western Ring Road was also visible, as part of the proposed F3 and F5 freeways.

So when was the alignment through the middle of the suburbia abandoned, replaced by a longer route through empty paddocks?

I found a lead in the 30 November 1989 edition of the Government Gazette, which introduced the Environmental Effects Statement approval process for the Western Ring Road. It detailed how the proposed freeway was to follow the existing F3 and F5 reservations already included in the planning schemes of the Cities of Werribee, Sunshine and Keilor – but not through Ardeer.

While the 1988/89 annual report for the Road Construction Authority gave some further context.

A planning investigation to prepare an Environmental Effects Statement for the Sunshine Keilor section of the Western Ring Road began in October 1988. A number of specialist investigations (some by consultants) are being done to gain information on existing and future traffic, noise, air quality, landscape, archaeology, flora and fauna and sociology.

Consultation is integral with the study. A mailing list has been prepared of more than 3,000, after 28,000 brochures were distributed to all property owners and occupiers in the area. Team members have met with many groups and individuals and public displays of all options were shown.

Minister for Transport, Mr Jim Kennan, with one of the community displays showing alternatives for the Western Ring Road at Ardeer

The major issues are the severance of Ardeer by the existing reservation, the need to minimise impact of the Derrimut Grasslands, and whether or not an interchange should be provided with the Calder Highway. Following evaluations, the Minister for Transport announced that the reservation through Ardeer would be dropped in favour of an alternative to the west. This was strongly supported by the community. The remaining issues will be resolved through the environmental process.

I then paid a visit to the State Library of Victoria to find the Environmental Effects Statement itself – in particular, that for the Sunshine to Keilor section of the Western Ring Road.

In ‘Supplementary Report No. 12’ dated November 1989, I found the following line:

The current Proposed Main Road reservation through Ardeer is to be deleted as the reservation width is considered insufficient to provide for a major arterial road.

It then goes on to recommend new usages of the now unneeded land:

The length of the reservation between the St Albans rail line and Derrimut is to be rezoned as follows:

(i). The section adjacent to Public Open Space reservations to the east and north of Hulett Street – to Public Open Space reservation.
(ii). The section adjacent to General Industrial Zone immediately north of Western Highway – to General Industrial Zone.
(iii). In Ardeer, from the Western Highway to Forrest Street amended to Proposed Secondary Road. An area immediately north of Forrest Street amended to Reserved Living.
(iv). From Ridgeway Parade southwards to Dalton Street rezoned to Reserved Living to allow residential development to take place subject to satisfactory road access arrangements. The present Proposed Secondary Road reservation (for the extension of Wright Street) will be retained until the long term development of the land is determined.
(v). South of Dalton Street a strip of land fronting Nicholson Parade is proposed to be rezoned to Reserved Living. This will ensure that the Sunshine West neighbourhood is not affected by industrial traffic intrusion if land to the west is developed for industry. The remainder of the old road reservation is proposed to be rezoned as Reserved Light Industrial to reflect present zoning to the west.

Item (iii) above will enable the provision of a north-south access route which will greatly improve accessibility in this area, currently severely limited by lack of crossing opportunities over the rail line and Kororoit Creek.

The Council has yet to carry out detailed traffic and planning studies for Ardeer/Sunshine West. These may show the need for different zones or reservations in the area. Designation of the land as Reserved Living generally preserves these options. If the Council decides that a road is not required for it’s purposes on the existing reservation north of Forrest Street, the land would revert to its underlying zoning of Reserved Living; or some such other reservation that the Council may decide upon. Before rezoning of the land is approved, the potential for contamination of the site will be assessed.

With the route of the Western Ring Road through Ardeer now decided, construction started in the early 1990s, with the Keilor Park Drive to Western Highway section opening in July 1995, and the Western Highway to Boundary Road, Laverton segment in March 1996.

As for the land zoning changes, the Government Gazette dated 19 January 1995 detailed the final abandonment of the old freeway route.

Planning and Environment Act 1987
NOTICE OF AMENDMENT TO A PLANNING SCHEME

The Brimbank City Council, Sunshine Office has prepared Amendment L79 to the Sunshine Planning Scheme. This amendment proposes to change the planning scheme by rezoning land along part of the abandoned Western Ring Road Reservation as follows.

(1) Parkland between Ridgeway Parade and Wright Street from Proposed Main Road Reservation to Public Open Space Reservation.
(2) Existing residential property at 164 Glengala Road from Proposed Main Road Reservation to Proposed Public Open Space Reservation.
(3) Part of Glengala Road from Proposed Main Road Reservation to Secondary Road Reservation.
(4) Existing residential properties in Hall Street and Lachlan Road from Proposed Main Road Reservation to Residential C Zone.
(5) Vacant land in Wright Street, Adina Court, Yaralla Count and Dalton Street from Proposed Main Road and Proposed Secondary Road Reservations to Reserved Living Zone.
(6) Vacant land in Adina Court from Proposed Main Road Reservation and Reserved Living Zones to Proposed Secondary Road Reservation.
(7) Vacant land in Fremont Parade and Marti Court from Proposed Main Road Reservation to Residential C Zone.

This amendment can be inspected at the Brimbank City Council, Sunshine Office, Alexandra Avenue, Sunshine or the Department for Planning and Development (Plan Inspection Section, Ground Floor, the Olderfleet Buildings, 477 Collins Street, Melbourne) and will be available for inspection during office hours by any person free of charge. Submissions about the amendment must be sent to the Urban Planning Department, Brimbank City Council, Sunshine Office, Municipal Offices, Alexandra Avenue, Sunshine 3020 by Monday, 20 February 1995.

So that wraps up everything up, including the little house by itself at 164 Glengala Road, Sunshine West.

Further reading

• The short term effects of Melbourne’s Western Ring Road: a paper by Paul Mees

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Planning for a future that never came

The best known bit of ghost roadway is the incomplete ramp at Chandler Highway on the Eastern Freeway, along with an associated road overpass. Marked in a number of Melway directories since the freeway opened in 1977, the ramp was intended to take eastbound traffic beneath the Chandler Highway and then onto the proposed E6 freeway, which has never been built. The alignment remains in place today, along with a short piece of roadway leading from the in-use off ramp.

It still might happen

Ghost ramps also exist for a partially completed roads, such as the Mornington Peninsula Freeway at Jetty Road in Rosebud South. The freeway itself opened between here and the Nepean Highway at Dromana in 1975, but in the 1980s it was decided to extend the freeway a short distance west towards Boneo Road.

It was decided to only build the southern carriageway of the road and omit the freeway overpass at Jetty Road, leaving a road towards Portsea to be built on the alignment of the future westbound entry ramp, leaving large earth embankment at the city end of the road, and a short road to nowhere where the future freeway will land.

Moved due to new roads

Not all ghost ramps were built for never-completed freeways – some were closed as part of road upgrades. The Police Road outbound on ramp to the Monash Freeway is one opened around 1994 to allow traffic from Waverley Park to access the freeway.

With the construction of the Eastlink – Monash Freeway interchange a short distance to the east, the ramp was closed in 2005 due to concerns about traffic weaving, being replaced by a new ramp a short distance away at Jacksons Road. Today only minor traces of the ramp remain along Police Road.

Unsafe and redundant

A longer lived ghost ramp can be found at Church Street on the Monash Freeway. Originally opened in 1962 as part of the South Eastern Arterial from Punt Road to Burnley Street, two ramps were provided for eastbound at Church Street: the first for northbound traffic towards Richmond, and a second one that did a loop and directed traffic south towards Prahran.

With the construction of CityLink during the late 1990s, the tight curve for the loop was determined to be unsafe and the ramp being closed to traffic. After sitting idle for over a decade, Yarra Council has allocated $1.1 million in their 2013/14 budget to convert it into a park, the work completed in 2015.

Leading into the darkness

Safety concerns also led to the closure of a different ramp on CityLink, this time at Power Street. Opened with the Burnley Tunnel in 2000, the ramp allowed traffic from the Melbourne CBD to access the westbound tunnel, joining the main traffic lanes a short distance inside the tunnel.

Asking the average Melbourne motorist to merge while inside the tunnel must have been too much of an ask, as in 2009 the ramp was closed as part of the Monash-CityLink-West Gate upgrade project, replaced by a new ramp from City Road, that merged with the existing Kings Way ramp outside the tunnel. The unused ramp remains in place today, but fenced off.

Omitted as part of an upgrade

Another former off ramp that still exists is located at the merge between the Tullamarine and Calder Freeways in Airport West. Originally opened in 1972, the interchange permitted traffic movements in all directions with a ‘trumpet’ layout.

Constrained by the adjacent airport, as traffic on the freeway increased over the years, congestion at the merge led to the interchange being rebuilt in 2005-07, with the airport bound carriageways being relocated to the centre of the freeway, and the former south to west ramp was closed, as the movement had been replaced by the opening of Western Ring Road some years earlier. Today the bridge and pavement remain in place, disconnected at both ends.

Catering to increasing traffic

Freeway upgrades are the reason for the abandonment of another freeway ramp, this time at the interchange of the Western Ring Road and the Tullamarine Freeway. Opened in stages between 1992 and 1997, the interchange permits traffic to proceed in a number of directions with a mix of flyover and cloverleaf ramps. The most hair raising ramp in the interchange carried southbound traffic from the Tullamarine Freeway to the westbound Ring Road, negotiating a 270 degree turn that was restricted to just 40 km/h, before an immediate merge with Western Ring Road traffic headed for Melbourne Airport and Melrose Drive.

The end result was much lane weaving and an increased risk of collisions, so this congested section of the roadway was replaced as part of the M80 Ring Road upgrade project, which constructed a flyover ramp over the top of the entire interchange, opening to traffic in early 2013. The pavement remains in place.

2020 update – I missed one!

Over on Reddit, someone on r/melbourne pointed out a ghost ramp at the Frankston Freeway / Mornington Peninsula Freeway / EastLink / Peninsula Link interchange. This ramp originally formed the southbound carriageway from the Mornington Peninsula Freeway towards the Frankston Freeway, but replaced by the current ramp in 2012 to make way for the Peninsula Link – Mornington Peninsula Freeway bridge that passes over EastLink.

And another!

I drive past this one all the time – Fitzgerald Road interchange with the Western Ring Road and Deer Park Bypass. Originally constructed in the 1990s as a conventional diamond interchange, the addition of the Deer Park Bypass in 2009 saw the Fitzgerald Road ramps on the northern side of the interchange replaced by a new pair of sharply curved ramps further north, making space for the ramps carrying traffic between the Deer Park Bypass and the Western Ring Road, and eliminating possible weaving movements. The only trace today – some newer sections of kerb along Fitzgerald Road that replaced the former ramp connection.

And still more

The interchange of the Calder Freeway and Woorite Place was once a full diamond, but the ramps to the west were closed in the mid-1990s to make way for the nearby Western Ring Road interchange. The remains on the eastbound off ramp are still visible today at the interchange, but the outbound on ramp from Milleara Road was obliterated.

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