Dunedin railway station as seen from the Octagon. The station forms a terminating vista for Lower Stuart Street.Interior of the station, showing the booking hall's mosaic floorThe clocktower at the south end of the station building
Dunedin railway station is a prominent landmark and tourist site in Dunedin, a city in the South Island of New Zealand. It is speculated by locals to be the most photographed building in the country, as well as the second most photographed in the southern hemisphere, after the Sydney Opera House.[1][2]
Dunedin Railways currently operates three tourist train lines out of the station, The Inlander, The Seasider, and The Victorian.[3] There are no dedicated intercity or suburban services still operating, although in the past it was the country's busiest station, being served by up to 100 trains a day.[4][2]
It is designed by George Troup, in the Flemish Renaissance style, and it is his most famous design. It earned Troup the nickname of "Gingerbread George".[5]
Early rail in Dunedin
Dunedin was linked to Christchurch by rail in 1878, with a link south to Invercargill completed the following year, and the first railway workshops were opened at Hillside in South Dunedin in 1875. Early plans were for a grand main station on Cumberland Street, but these did not get further than the laying of a foundation,[6] and a simple temporary weatherboard station was built next to the site in 1884. It took close to 20 years for government funding to be allocated, and planning only really commenced as the 19th century was drawing to a close.
The logistics of constructing what was at the time New Zealand's busiest railway station took three years before construction began in 1903.[7] Dunedin required a station for a wide range of activities: it was a commercial and industrial centre, close to gold and coalfields, with a hinterland that was dependent on livestock and forestry for its economy.
Construction
In an eclectic, revived Flemish renaissance style, (Renaissance Revival architecture), the station is constructed of dark basalt from Kokonga in the Strath-Taieri with lighter Oamaru stone facings, giving it the distinctive light and dark pattern common to many of the grander buildings of Dunedin and Christchurch. Pink granite[8] was used for a series of supporting pillars which line a colonnade at the front. The roof was tiled in terracottashingles from Marseilles[9] surmounted by copper-domed cupolas.[10] The southern end is dominated by the 37-metre clocktower visible from much of central Dunedin.
The booking hall features a mosaic floor of almost 750,000 Minton tiles. A frieze of Royal Doultonporcelain runs around the balcony above it from which the floor's design, featuring a locomotive and related symbols, can be clearly seen.[11] The main platform is the country's longest,[citation needed] extending for about 500 metres.
The foundation stone was laid by the Minister of RailwaysJoseph Ward on 3 June 1904.[6] The Prime MinisterRichard Seddon was also present. The station was officially opened by Ward, by then Prime Minister, on 12 November 1906. Construction was kept within budget, and cost £40,000.[12]
History
In its early days the station was the country's busiest, handling up to 100 trains a day, including suburban services to Mosgiel and Port Chalmers, railcars to Palmerston and the Otago Central Railway and other trains to Christchurch and Invercargill. The city's economic decline and the reduction in the prominence of rail transport means that only a handful of trains use the station today.
The station used to have dock platforms at both the north and south ends and a crossover midway along the main platform. Large shunting yards, most of which have now gone, occupied land to the south. Much of this land has now been subdivided into wholesale and light industrial properties.
With the decrease in passenger rail traffic, the station now serves more functions than the one for which it was designed. Bought by the Dunedin City Council in 1994, its uses have greatly diversified, though it still caters for the Dunedin Railways tourist trains. Much of the ground floor is used as a restaurant, and the upper floor is home to both the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame and the Otago Art Society. A produce market is held in the grounds to the north every Saturday morning. Every year in March, the station takes centre stage in the South Island's main fashion show, with the main platform becoming reputedly the world's longest catwalk.[13][2]
A thorough refurbishment of the exterior took place in the late 1990s, accompanied by the landscaping of the gardens outside the entrance in Anzac Square.[14]
In October 2006 its centenary was celebrated with a festival of railway events, including the operation of eight steam railway locomotives from all over New Zealand. In 2006 it was recognised by DK Eyewitness Travel as one of "The World's 200 Must-See Places".[15][16]
On 12 February 2008, a container wagon struck and partially destroyed the historic footbridge at the southern end of the station, joining Anzac Square with the industrial zone close to the wharves. Four people were on the bridge, with one suffering minor injuries when she fell 4.5 metres.[17] Reconstruction of a footbridge of similar design on the same site was carried out in September–October 2008.[18]
In 2013, baker Steve Mee from the Scenic Southern Cross Hotel recreated the station in gingerbread. It was 1.5m long and entirely edible, being constructed of gingerbread, icing and chocolate.[19]
Anzac "Square" is the triangular green area marked (6). The black line is the railway.
Immediately outside the station is Anzac Square, which, despite its name, is roughly triangular in shape, and was extensively remodelled and extended in the 1990s to create a formal knot garden.[14] Directly across the square is Lower Stuart Street, which leads to the city's centre, The Octagon, from where the station is clearly visible as a major landmark. The station thus forms a terminating vista for Lower Stuart Street.
The square is at the southern end of Anzac Avenue, a kilometre-long tree-lined street running roughly parallel to the railway, which leads to Logan Park. The central part of Anzac Avenue is part of State Highway 88, which links the central city with its port facilities at Port Chalmers, and was the northern end until 2011 when construction of the Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza required re-routing of part of the highway.
Logan Park was the site of the 1925 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, and the avenue and square were named to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the "ANZACs", who were New Zealand's main military force during the First World War. After the refurbishment of the square, a large plaque dedicated to New Zealand's Victoria Cross recipients was relocated to its northern end, close to the start of Anzac Avenue. This has since been relocated again, and now stands close to the city's main war memorial, the Dunedin Cenotaph in Queen's Gardens, 400 metres to the south.
The South Island is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and sparsely populated Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south by the Foveaux Strait and Southern Ocean, and to the east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers 150,437 square kilometres (58,084 sq mi), making it the world's 12th-largest island, constituting 56% of New Zealand's land area. At low altitudes, it has an oceanic climate. The major centres are Christchurch, with a metropolitan population of 521,881, and the smaller Dunedin. The economy relies on agriculture, fishing, tourism, and general manufacturing and services.
Railway preservation in New Zealand is the preservation of historically significant facets of New Zealand's rail transport history. The earliest recorded preservation attempt took place in 1925, although the movement itself did not start properly until 1960.
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The city has a rich Māori, Scottish, and Chinese heritage.
Mosgiel is an urban satellite of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand, fifteen kilometres west of the city's centre. Since the re-organisation of New Zealand local government in 1989 it has been inside the Dunedin City Council area. Mosgiel has a population of approximately 15,150 as of June 2024. A nickname for Mosgiel is "The pearl of the plain". Its low-lying nature does pose problems, making it prone to flooding after heavy rains. Mosgiel takes its name from Mossgiel Farm, Ayrshire, the farm of the poet Robert Burns, the uncle of the co-founder in 1848 of the Otago settlement, the Reverend Thomas Burns.
Dunedin Railways is the trading name of Dunedin Railways Limited, an operator of a railway line and tourist trains based at Dunedin Railway Station in the South Island of New Zealand. The company is a council-controlled trading organisation wholly owned by Dunedin City Council through its holding company Dunedin City Holdings Limited.
The Strath Taieri is a large glacial valley and river plateau in New Zealand's South Island. It is surrounded by the rugged hill ranges to the north and west of Otago Harbour. Since 1989 it has been part of the city of Dunedin. The small town of Middlemarch is located at its southern end.
The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin. It is one of the most important railway lines in New Zealand and was one of the first to be built, with construction commencing in the 1860s. At Christchurch, it connects with the Main North Line to Picton, the other part of the South Island Main Trunk.
The Port Chalmers Branch was the first railway line built in Otago, New Zealand, and linked the region's major city of Dunedin with the port in Port Chalmers. The line is still operational today.
The Outram Branch was a branch line railway near Dunedin, Otago, that operated from 1877 to 1953 and formed part of New Zealand's national rail network.
The Southerner was a passenger express train in New Zealand's South Island between Christchurch and Invercargill along the South Island Main Trunk, that ran from 1970 to 2002. It was one of the premier passenger trains in New Zealand and its existence made Invercargill the southernmost passenger station in the world.
Logan Park is a sporting venue in the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. It lies on land reclaimed from the former Lake Logan.
The Otago Central Railway (OCR) or in later years Otago Central Branch Railway, now often referred to as the Taieri Gorge Railway, was a secondary railway line in Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand.
Hyde is a locality in Otago, New Zealand, located in the Strath-Taieri. It is close to the northern end of the Rock and Pillar Range on State Highway 87 between Middlemarch and Ranfurly. Hyde is best known as the site of the Hyde railway disaster of 4 June 1943, in which 21 people were killed when an express train on the Otago Central Railway derailed at high speed in a cutting near the town. At the time, it was the worst railway accident in New Zealand's history; it has only been passed by the Tangiwai disaster of 24 December 1953, which claimed the lives of 151 people. The site of the Hyde disaster can now be walked as part of the Otago Central Rail Trail and a monument, a 2.5 m high cairn, stands as a memorial to the victims.
Stuart Street is one of the main streets of Dunedin, New Zealand. As with many of Dunedin's streets, it is named after a main street in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Project Steam is a railway preservation society based in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is dedicated to the restoration of steam locomotives formerly operated by the New Zealand Railways Department, with its goal to restore at least one locomotive to main line operating conditions in order to operate excursions from Dunedin Railway Station. The society is currently the only one of its kind in Dunedin; the Ocean Beach Railway operates small tank locomotives but on private trackage, and the popular Taieri Gorge Limited is run solely by diesel locomotives.
Taieri is a parliamentary electorate in the Otago region of New Zealand, initially from 1866 to 1911, and was later recreated during the 2019/20 electoral redistribution ahead of the 2020 election.
The Dunedin Law Courts is a notable historic building in central Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand. They are located at the corner of Lower Stuart Street and Anzac Square, directly opposite the city's historic railway station. Since 1902, the building has been used as the city's law courts, and contains four court rooms, including the ornate High Court, as well as housing the offices and library of the Law Society.
The Cenotaph in the southern New Zealand city of Dunedin stands in the centre of Queens Gardens, close to the city centre. It is the city's main war memorial.
Queens Gardens is a roughly triangular area of trees and lawn in central Dunedin, New Zealand.
↑ Note that, while most sources (e.g., Johnson, p.34, Knight and Wales, p.235) claim the granite was from Bluff in Southland, New Zealand, stone deliberately chosen to imitate that for which Aberdeen in Scotland is famous, some, such as McGill and Sheehan (p.224), claim the stone was imported from Aberdeen. There is no pink granite in Bluff. The pillars are Peterhead granite from Aberdeen.
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