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For nearly 100 years, Boyanup was an important railway junction on the West Australian Government railways system. The line from Bunbury split to serve the agricultural areas as far south as Northcliffe and the coastal areas as far as Flinders Bay (Augusta).
As a rail junction, Boyanup was home to railway fettlers and other staff, with two of the railway cottages still standing next to Fettlers Park, although not now in railway hands. The station buildings were demolished in the early 1990s and the loading bank is the only remnant of a once busy goods yard, which forms part of the Boyanup Railway precinct. With the relocation of the railway infrastructure from the centre of Bunbury to Picton in the mid 1980s, a new home was required for two vintage steam locomotives, Leschenault Lady and Koombana Queen. The Boyanup railway yard, no longer the busy place it had once been, was chosen as the venue and the South West Rail and Heritage Centre (formerly known as the Boyanup Museum) was opened in 1986. A section of the once great Bunbury roundhouse and the 70metre long goods shed were rebuilt on the site and artefacts, both railway and related to life in the South West, were collected and put on display. In recent years, the museum site had been closed to the public while much-needed renovations and improvements were made. Today, that work continues but most of the site is now open by appointment for visitors to explore. |
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