Temple Court is the site of a closed railway station platform on the Main North railway line on the outskirts of the Hunter Region town of Murrurundi in New South Wales, Australia. The station was opened in late April 1878[1] and closed in 1975. No trace of it remains.[2]

A kerosene shale deposit had been located in early 1862, but the difficult terrain of the Liverpool Ranges provided transport problems. In 1871 a shale mine was started north of the area at Mount Temi. However, it was only from 1905 that significant progress was made to develop the deposit. A loop siding, north of Temple Court, was constructed in 1910, as was a short rail line from Temple Court to the site of the shale oil retorts that were operated by the British Australian Oil Company from late 1911 to early 1915.[3][4][5] While the retorts operated, the line carried crude shale oil destined for the company's refinery at Hamilton. It was lifted in 1931.[4] A part of the branch railway's formation, between the existing Main North railway and Pages River, is still discernible, as a curved embankment.[6] Another part of the old railway route is Elizabeth Street in Murrurundi.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Advertising". The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser. NSW. 27 April 1878. p. 1. Retrieved 27 September 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ Bozier, Rolfe. "Temple Court Platform". NSWrail.net. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  3. ↑ Pells, P. J. N; Hammon, Philip J (2009), The burning mists of time : a technological and social history of mining in Katoomba, WriteLight, pp. 45–47, ISBN 978-0-9775639-6-8
  4. 1 2 Eardley, Gifford H. (Gifford Henry); Stephens, Eric M. (2015), The shale railways of New South Wales, Redfern, NSW Australian Railway Historical Society New South Wales Division, pp. 211–222, ISBN 978-0-9807721-8-0
  5. ↑ "ARHS NSW Railway Luncheon Club. Notes for the tour to Murrurundi" (PDF). Australian Railway Historical Society. November 2015. pp. 37–39.
  6. ↑ "Satellite View - near former Temple Court railway station". Google Maps. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  7. ↑ "The Shale Mine - THE ERECTION OF RAILWAY LINE". Murrurundi Times and Liverpool Plains Gazette. 6 December 1907. p. 2. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
Preceding station Former Services Following station
Ardglen
towards Wallangarra
 Main North Line Murrurundi
towards Sydney

31°45′55″S 150°50′05″E / 31.76528°S 150.83472°E / -31.76528; 150.83472

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