Oh Balladoran!

A short one to finish off the financial year....

The railway arrived at Balladoran approximately 60 years after the initial white settler, Mr J Mamss, established a pastoral property in the district.  This property took its name from an Aboriginal word for platypus, and lent the same name to the area – Balladoran.  It is very doubtful whether a platypus ever graced the main street of Balladoran - unless it walked from Gilgandra.

Balladoran is reached ten kilometres after Eumungerie.  It is 508 kilometres from Sydney and lies within the Emu Parish of Ewenmar County.  The village of Balladoran existed sometime prior to the coming of the railway.  A school had been established in October 1884.  The coming of the railway concentrated civilisation to such a degree that postal facilities were established in February 1905.

Like Eumungerie and Mogriguy, Balladoran was originally provided with a just a mainline platform and a solitary siding – in this instance the siding measured 282 metres and was situated on the western side of the main line.

The railway platform received a three-room station building for the use of intending travellers.  No staff member of NSW Railways was allocated to the location.

The first decade saw a number of improvements to the railway infrastructure.  Only five months after the opening of the line a siding for the loading of railway sleepers was provided, which was opened on 25 July 1903.  The second anniversary of the railway’s opening on 18 February 1905 was celebrated with the provision of a loading bank for the loading of wool, bagged wheat and stock.

In October 1910 a 20 ton cart weighbridge was added to the railway yard.  A further early extension of Balladoran’s yard involved a 150 metre extension of the siding at the southern end of the yard.

Passengers were served at Balladoran from the opening of the railway until 23 November 1974.

As with other townships on the Coonamble line, significant railway infrastructure was accumulated at Balladoran.  By 1973 the Western Division Local Appendix to the Working timetable noted Balladoran as possessing 2,700 tonnes capacity in its grain receival facilities, a loading bank, portable sheep race, a 20-tonne weighbridge and an out-of shed.  The siding was rated as having a capacity for holding 87 four-wheel wagons.

Balladoran’s initial grain facilities were most likely a bagged wheat receival site.  In 1966 the location also received a D Depot grain bulkhead storage facility – mirroring the facility erected at Eumungerie.

Today only the grain receival facilities remain. However the grain siding has been stub-ended at the north – reducing access from and to the south.