Newmarket Railway Station

From the outset the Windsor Shire Council and The Enoggera Divisional Board committed ratepayers’ funds to ensure this scheme would succeed. Unfortunately, this agreement also required that rate payers were obliged to pay an annual share of the deficit for running the railway. This was not well received within the area when the railway ran at a loss.

With the establishment of the saleyard at Newmarket in the 1870s public pressure for a railway soon followed. After numerous delays parliamentary approval for a line was given in December 1895.

It was envisaged that the saleyard at Newmarket was to provide the most important paying traffic. Initially this was correct with special trains bringing stock from north and west for the weekly sale - 300 cattle and 2000 sheep each week by 1913. A station siding was added in 1916 and duplication of the line occurred in 1921. At this time, the original station building, built to a standard 1898 design, was modified. In 1928 automatic colour light signals were installed. These apparently were the first on the system between Mayne and Newmarket. In addition Newmarket had the only smash signal installed near Brisbane and the only one at the end of the double track.’In 1954, the level crossing gates were replaced with boom gates.

Although expansion of stock unloading facilities occurred at Newmarket, and despite the reluctance to move the saleyards, new abattoirs were opened at Cannon Hill in 1931 causing a downturn in the rail traffic to Newmarket. With the depression in the early 1930s forcing a reduction in Government expenses and in conjunction with the downturn in revenue the station master was replaced with a station mistress. When the ‘smash signal’ was removed in 1938, a station master was reappointed.

An indication of the extent to which local industry relied upon the railway is gained from the construction of  a number of sidings prior to electrification. These included the siding known as the Brick Builders’ Supply Company Siding in 1916 and the Woodrow and Johnson’s siding in 1920. The latter served the Newmarket Plywood Company, known as Brown and Broad from 1964 until 1969 when the siding was removed. 

By 1954, the subway and two footbridges had been constructed and the island platform contained the station building and a detached signal cabin. 

The station at present comprises of a ‘Shelter shed,’ pedestrian overbridge, and pedestrian tunnel, with the old station master’s residence placed beside the track. The signal cabin has been removed and the original boom gates replaced.

1. Brisbane City Council Heritage. Moorooka District Character Study. (1996)

2. Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plan No: 617

3. Kerr, John. Notes on Queensland Railways. (1966-1972)

4. Kerr, J 1988, Brunswick Street, Bowen Hills and Beyond: the Railways of the Northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australian Railway Historical Society, Brisbane

5. A.Ward Queensland Railway Heritage Places Study: Stage 2 Vol.4. April 1997