Railways and Tramways of Australia

6 September

Down platform, Fairfield, 22 June 2019. Fairfield station opened with the railway from Parramatta to Liverpool on 1 September 1856. Photo: David Matheson.

Heading south

Services on the railway between Parramatta and Liverpool stations began on 1 September 1856.

Sydney’s first railway opened between Sydney and Parramatta in September 1855. The original Parramatta station was located several hundred metres west of the current Granville station; it was moved to its current site in 1860. At the same time a new station was opened named Parramatta Junction, which was renamed Granville in 1880, and remains the current Granville station.

When the Parramatta railway was opened, planning for extensions was already underway. A contract for building the line to Liverpool was awarded to William Randle, who had completed the Sydney to Parramatta railway. An official inspection party, including Governor-General Sir William Denison travelled over the full length of the line from Sydney to Liverpool on 18 August 1856.

The new line had a length of 8 miles and 35 chains (13.6 km). At the time of opening the only intermediate station was Fairfield. Its station building on the Down platform remains in existence and is the oldest railway building in New South Wales.

There was a moderate level of celebration to mark the line’s opening. On the opening day, the first train departed from Liverpool at 6.00 am without fanfare. The first train from Sydney to Liverpool was decorated with flags. Official guests travelled on the third train, which was met by a large crowd. Following a private lunch the official party returned to Sydney.

The date of opening of the railway to Liverpool is often incorrectly reported as 26 September 1856. This appears to have resulted from an error in railway records from 1864 that was subsequently repeated. Contemporary reports indicated that the line’s opening date was certainly 1 September.

The railway to Liverpool became the first section of the Main Southern Line.

Bibliography

D Hagarty, The building of the Sydney railway, Australian Railway Historical Society (NSW Division), Sydney, 2005.

‘Opening of the Liverpool railway’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 September 1856, p 4.

‘Opening of the railway to Liverpool’, The Empire, 2 September 1856, p 5.

CC Singleton, ‘The genesis of the Main Southern Line - Granville to Campbelltown’, Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, no. 367, May 1968, p 97­–127.