With thanks to Romsey & Lancefield Districts Historical Society. The society meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10am-2pm, at Lancefield Courthouse, in Main Rd, Lancefield.
In the photo above, from June 23, 1956, a Victorian Railways train calls at Monegeetta on its journey along the Clarkefield-Lancefield line. The scene of a passenger checking his watch and people striding along the platform suggests nothing out of the ordinary. However, this was the final time a passenger service would run along those tracks.
The line closed for good almost two months later, its demise sealed by the increasing popularity of the motor car and the cost to repair the Bolinda trestle bridge.
The Clarkefield-Lancefield railway operated for 75 years. In addition to Monegeetta, the stations along the route included Bolinda, North Monegeetta and Romsey.
In 1892, 11 years after it opened, the track was extended 30km to Kilmore, linking the Bendigo and Heathcote lines. But the Lancefield-Kilmore section, built at great expense over steep terrain, proved to be a white elephant. Suffering from a lack of passengers and freight, it closed five years later (though it did briefly reopen from 1900-1903).
Of the former stations on the Clarkefield-Lancefield line, only Lancefield remains in its original location. The station at Monegeetta was moved to a farm near Romsey, where it serves as an outbuilding.
Kylie McKay, co-author of A Pictorial Guide to the Long Lost Lancefield and Kilmore Railway
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