Underpass - VIC

The Great Victorian Rail Trail goes underneath the main road here. Originally, this was the site of the 9 Mile Gatehouse - a place locally known as "the house on stilts". It was abolished on 27/3/1947. It was situated in a small triangular piece of land backing onto the railway formation and facing the main road. If you leant out of a train here you could almost touch the roof of the house - a feat that passengers often attempted.

The former main road used to cross the right of way here, the site being extensively modified in the 1920’s with the main road re-aligned to stay on the right hand side of the trail. The former main road was abolished, & consequently the site, gatehouse & gates were removed, with the alterations. This site was one of a number of locations, in the state of Victoria that had hand operated gates, not protected by lineside signals.

These gates were normally closed, against road traffic. When it was required to open the gates for road traffic to be let through, the road user, had to rouse the gate attendant, who after contacting the Signalmen at both Tallarook & Yea, to find out if there was a train in the section. & its approximate whereabouts, would then operate the gates, allowing the road user to go over the line, at his own risk, this arrangement, common in this era, was signified to Drivers of trains, by the attaching of a small white triangular shaped board, to the advance crossing approach board, placed twice the distance out, than normal. This arrangement became unworkable in the late 1920’s with the consequent increase in road traffic, with more cars hitting the Victorian road system. This location featured in a Railway awareness campaign to increase level crossing awareness in 1923 titled, “Stop, Look & listen” An early Red “Austin A7”, featured in the promotion as well.

This unusual safety procedure remained in force in Victoria till into the 70’s, when the last two locations at Paddy & Lonsdale Streets, Mentone, just out of Cheltenham in the Metropolitan area of Melbourne, were converted to a boom barrier, type arrangement. Paddy Street however was blocked off altogether.

Thank you to Lance Adams for supplying this historical information - Lance Adams was one of the last drivers to drive trains on this line and is a resident of Yea.