Armidale railway station
Armidale railway station is a heritage-listed railway station at 240 Brown Street, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1882 to 1883 by Edmund Lonsdale and Henry Sheldon Hoddard, and was opened on 3 February 1883 when the line was extended from Uralla. It was the terminus of the line until it was extended to Glen Innes on 19 August 1884. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. It is the terminal station of the Main Northern line. The last regular services to operate north of Armidale was the Northern Mail which ceased in November 1988. Freight services continued to serve a fertiliser depot at Dumaresq until the mid-2000s, after which the line closed north of Armidale. History Armidale railway precinct is located on the Main North line, which runs from Sydney and extends as far as Wallangarra on the Queensland border. The Main North Line (formerly known as the Great Northern Railway) runs through the Central Coast, Hunter and New England regions. The line was the original main line between Sydney and Brisbane, however this required a change of gauge at Wallangarra. The line is now closed north of Armidale, and the main route between Brisbane and Sydney is now the North Coast line. Armidale was first settled in the early 1830s, following the earlier exploration of the area by John Oxley. Oxley recommended the region for grazing, and soon early pioneers set up small farms in the locality. Armidale, which was surveyed in 1848 and gazetted in 1849, was established to provide a market and administration centre for the farms. The town grew rapidly following the discovery of gold at nearby Rocky River and Gara Gorges in the 1850s. Although the opening of the Great Northern Railway occurred on 30 March 1857, political indecision in the 1870s hampered efforts by Engineer-in-Chief of the NSW Railways, John Whitton, to finalise the survey of the Great Northern line. Competing proposals urged a route via Armidale and Tenterfield against a less developed but easier route through Barraba and Inverell. On 18 May 1878, the Minister for Public Works, John Sutherland, announced that the chosen route was via Armidale. The line to Armidale opened on 3 February 1883 as an extension of the line from Uralla and continued on to Glen Innes the following year. The construction contract for the Uralla to Glen Innes section was awarded to David Proudfoot in . Contracts for the construction of a station building, Station Master's residence, lamp room, carriage dock and buffer, goods shed, and water tank were awarded in 1882 to Edmund Lonsdale (1843–1913). Lonsdale began his working life as a bricklayer, builder and contractor before beginning a career in state politics (1891–1913), serving as a member for New England and Armidale. The fine cast-iron work of the station building was completed at New England Foundry in Uralla by Henry Sheldon Goddard. In addition to the station building, other early structures and additions to