centralrailwaystation

beachcomber australia (Re your note): but the tree was removed in 1936!
Either the fig tree recovered from being sawn off at the base - or this aerial photo is much earlier than c.1947 ...

Or, is it a different tree?

I totally forgot about this 1954 image, about which we were surprised the tree was still there:

pellethepoet Totally confusing!

Does State Records have a similar aerial photograph of the Eveleigh Railway Workshop Area ?

Was this photogrpahy part of a series ?

my happy snapper As search using the word "aerial" results in Photo Investigator brings up these results
investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/search.as...
However unfortunately there are none specifically of Eveleigh here.

Before February 1936. "Mr. J. Dowling, of Rockdale, in a letter to the Editor, says that a beautiful fig tree, which stood in the small garden reserve on the western side of the Central Railway station, has been sawn off at the base. About 12 months ago the branches were lopped, but the foliage eventually regained its former beauty. Now, he says, it has been converted into an eyesore." - DESTRUCTION OF TREE, The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 14 February 1936, p.4. - trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/17332879 "NSWR 190[6?]" - could the garden plantings be to mark the anniversary of the opening of the new railway station in 1906? Perhaps the 25th anniversary in August 1931?

pellethepoet Unfortunatley fig trees have a huge root system which have a habit of destroying roads and paths. Perhaps it was starting to cause such problems at Central Railway. I remember the figs in Manly started to rip up all manner of things some years ago.

pellethepoet Terrific! Part of The Tree Mystery is solved! I still find it astounding that they obliterated 4-6 blocks of buildings, roads, cemeteries, sandhills, etc, and kept one tree. Go FIGure!

pellethepoet You found it, nice one! An 'eyesore' indeed, hmph... beachcomber australia Aww, you' re too quick with those puns! AB

In 1948 -

Such an abomination has replaced that time board, the pot plants and moulded chairs are classics aren't they?

By the time this photo was taken the departures board had already outlived it's usefulness and lacked the flexibility required by the timetable as testified by the numerous supplementary metal signs that had to be used. This was mainly due to the decrease in long distance country trains and the vast increase in shorter distance commuter intercity trains.

Albert Alcoceba From memory on the Southern Highlands line the only thing that changed was the clock at the top, the destinations remained unchanged. Might have been different on other lines I suppose.
In any case it was a lovely bit of old world. I'm glad they preserved in in the Powerhouse Museum.

Albert Alcoceba Those metal signs on the floor look like someone isn't coping very well as you say.

Highranger What used to happen is that columns for country and less frequent trains would be "borrowed" for thenumerous North, West and Illawarra Interurbans. Because the columns didn't have the correct destinations on the flip over slats, the supplementary metal signs were hung up on those less frequently used columns.