Ruins of the Hobart Railway Station. What Happened?

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:06]The dog and I stand out the front of the ABC building, but it's also the remnant of the Hobart railway station. Tasmania is the only state in Australia to have done away with passenger trains.

[00:00:21]Where did it all go wrong? And what is actually left over from the old station?

[00:00:27]There's bits and pieces if you know where to look.

[00:00:31]>> The Hobart railway station was the largest stop on the Tasmanian government railways network.

[00:00:38]Passenger train services to Hobart's northern suburbs on the western shore and the Tasman Limited, a regional express service linking the capital with Lcestn and Wineyard. In the 1850s, the area was an open field awaiting for reaching. Before the locomotives arrived, both suburban and longer range travel was done by horsedrawn coach.

[00:01:07]Constructed by the Tasmanian Mainline Company in 1871, the technological leap looks primitive now.

[00:01:17]It was nevertheless like magic and a place that people would come and look upon to admire and be filled with civic pride.

[00:01:29]In 1901, the city had a royal visit from the Duke of York. The station was decorated to look like a castle. In 1937, a proposed new railway station plan was outlined by Premier Albert Oggov. He would have brought the trains right into the middle of the CBD. But Oggovie died two years later and with him the momentum was also no longer.

[00:01:56]During World War II, enlisted soldiers departed from the station.

[00:02:03]A final look at Hobart before entering the ticket hall. This was the front of the building. This was the entrance, but it's since been bricked up with sandstone blocks and these two windows put here. But this is where people came out and entered the great capital of Tasmania.

[00:02:28]Some of the tracks are still visible in Mcquaryy Point.

[00:02:34]Going around the bend, there is more.

[00:02:39]There's a whole bunch of yellow crested cockatos that have landed in the trees up there. We're here in the cut. This is where the trains used to enter and exit.

[00:02:49]Come on, mate. The train station.

[00:02:54]You want to come up?

[00:03:01]They're everywhere this morning.

[00:03:05]Whoa. So, there's all this rubble. You can see how the sides of the cut are falling in. There's that bridge up there, that foot bridge. That isn't part of what the actual station was. It's part of the overall infrastructure that supported the network, though. So, you've got the ruin of the station in the middle of the town. And as you go further out, there are other bits and pieces along the way.

[00:03:31]There's two lines here. One of the lines turns into a bike track. The bike track that goes from the northern suburbs into town is built on one of the train lines.

[00:03:46]And in the distance is the heavy hum of morning traffic.

[00:03:53]We might wonder where the trains have gone, but where did they all come from?

[00:03:59]In 1952, 10 brand new theme locomotives arrived built by Robert Stevenson and Hawthornes of Newcastle on time. Lifted from a boat, they were placed on the tracks that were then used to haul carriage around the dock, then pushed around to the railway station. Within Tasmanian folklore, there is the zinc moth.

[00:04:24]Most notably associated with the zinc works at Risden. An earlier origin may be the station.

[00:04:32]Depending on who you speak to, there was a railway worker called John Zincowski, a distressed person, perhaps an aged ex-convict. Some claimed he had anthropomorphic transformative abilities.

[00:04:49]Flying about the station, taking away people.

[00:04:55]In the early 1950s, the station was significantly expanded.

[00:05:02]600 ft concrete counter levered canopies for platforms, a large concourse, and various new flash amenities.

[00:05:19]On Brooker Avenue, there is a shadow.

[00:05:27]As you get closer, there is a concrete wall, something blocked up. Behind it, there once was a tunnel that people moved through.

[00:05:52]So, the dog is sitting on the edge here.

[00:05:55]The water of the fountain gets turned off and on throughout the day. I can't really make rhyme or reason of it. It's glugging away. It was just on a second ago.

[00:06:05]This place is awesome. It's one of the best places in the whole country.

[00:06:10]And it's a centerpiece for a long time was the introduction to high if people were entering be it by vehicle or train.

[00:06:18]It's part of the railway station. And of course the big clue is in the name.

[00:06:24]The railway roundabout was the solution to a 1960s problem. The Brooker Highway had been bottling outside the station.

[00:06:34]There was already a small roundabout. A national design competition for it was won by Jeff Par, Rod Kath and Via Cooper who worked together at the Cabri's factory in Hobart. The hole dug for the creation was made with earth moving equipment. Operators made a discovery. A lost buried silla filled with bottles contained booze still inside. The loot was quietly divided between the workers.

[00:07:08]A space age fountain was erected. 120 jets, 92 colored lights.

[00:07:16]Today, the water isn't as flashy, and the lights seem to not flash at all.

[00:07:22]In the 1960s, the roundabout functioned without traffic lights. They have since been added. Today, it is the number one place on the island that a driver is likely to suffer a praying.

[00:07:38]In 2015, the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society named it the best roundabout in the world.

[00:07:52]Looking at the area in the 1960s and today, one can see how much has changed.

[00:07:59]The big circle draws the eye like a target. Built in 1915, it had a diameter of 300 ft. Electrical driven turntable to move engines in and out of service bays. It was the working heart of the station. It was the largest in Australia.

[00:08:20]Just a few years ago, the device's remnant crater could still be seen on the surface.

[00:08:30]This spot on the hill would have been a spot where the old train spotters might have come along. Look down, see the trains coming and going, being shunted about. There's a building over there that is very much part of the train station. The goods shed was constructed in 1914 to 1915. Substantial building accommodating rail lines and platforms for the transportation of goods to and from the yards. Assessed for potential heritage values against the eight criteria of the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995. It met seven of the eight.

[00:09:16]So, right now you got these two school buses parked at the front of the good shed, but pretty soon they're going to be parked at the front of nothing because despite the heritage listing of the structure, it's going to be demolished.

[00:09:33]The good shed will be ripped apart so that a football stadium can be built.

[00:09:38]The AFL proposal claims it will be put together again in a different location.

[00:09:43]the exact details of which are scanted.

[00:09:46]Moved and seriously altered, it will no longer be the same building. The station could teleport you to many destinations, but increasingly it was moving less people to those places. For decades, train travel had been a major part of Tasmanian tourism. And for a place overly concerned with the perceptions of outsiders, train travel was part of island identity. Yet it all did end.

[00:10:29]In 1974, regular suburban train stopped.

[00:10:32]The last Tasman limited passenger service departed four years later. In the 1980s, the section that had been used by passengers was redeveloped.

[00:10:42]Besides the ABC headquarters, there are now other going concerns. In 2014, freight 2 ended with operations moved to a safer and more efficient site at Brighton.

[00:10:55]There was no conspiracy.

[00:10:57]People simply stopped buying tickets.

[00:11:00]The thing that killed the train station was the thing that surrounds it now.

[00:11:05]People in Hobart like to drive cars.

[00:11:09]Hobart is not geographically suitable for trains. People live up in the hills where trains cannot get to. And there is a river dividing the city. That water being a barrier to train tracks. Many people feel that trains should come back, but they never will.

[00:11:28]May Hobart last 1,000 years. The trains will be seen as a brief but significant totem in the timeline.