EVELEIGH: Over 400 locals, railway enthusiasts and industrial heritage buffs were transported to a bygone era of steam trains and handmade machinery at the Heritage Community Days on May 16 and 17 at the Australian Technology Park and the Large Erecting Shop.
ATP heritage volunteers made the stories come alive while Wrought Artworks blacksmiths kept the atmosphere alive by burning and forging steel with traditional tools for awed onlookers in the old Blacksmith’s Workshop.
From 1886 until the 1980s, when the Park was still the Eveleigh Railway Yards and one of Australia’s largest industrial complexes, the Blacksmith’s Workshop produced equipment, tools and parts for the maintenance and manufacture of steam locomotives in Australia.
Two-hour guided tours started in the Locomotive Workshop with Mohamad Chami, a trained teacher, providing an overview of the site from Aboriginal times to the present day and covering the rich industrial and labour history of the site.
Richard Butcher, an ex-blacksmith on the site, explained how the Blacksmith Shop worked, and introduced people to the big hammers and some of the stories. John Gibson introduced people to hydraulic water power at Eveleigh with a guided tour of the pump house and stories about Sydney’s high pressure system that operated lifts, cranes and presses in the city before electric power.
The tour was then handed over to volunteers from 3801 Ltd who took the tour through some of their carriages and into the Large Erecting Shop (LES). This was the first time that any of the LES had been opened up to the public since the building had been saved and the zoning changed to allow it to be also used for educational uses.
On the way into the LES the groups were shown the WWI honour board at the LES and were advised that with the ANZAC Centenary it is hoped to tell more of the story of the Eveleigh workers who were among the first to sign up for the Great War.
Local Alexandria resident, Desley Haas, said the tours were very enjoyable and informative. “By the time we arrived at the Locomotives at the Large Erecting Shed, it was perfectly clear what life would have been like here,” she said.
“After seeing and imagining how much hard work, with simple tools and huge steam-driven machines, and how much care and attention to fine detail must have gone into creating a locomotive, it is no wonder so much passion and fascination exist today for the old steam trains.”
