Riverina Rewind: What will become of the historic Best Street Gatekeeper's Cottage?

It was announced last week that works on the Albury to Illabo section of Inland Rail were beginning in Wagga with the establishment of a site compound beside the rail corridor at the intersection of Macleay and Railway streets.

Between the construction site and the soon-to-be-replaced Edmondson Street Bridge, sits a dilapidated red-brick building that once served as the Best Street Gatekeeper’s Cottage.

This got us wondering what its fate would be once the bulldozers rolled in to begin work on a new bridge to accommodate double-stacked freight trains.

The building remains under a heritage order and a spokesperson for Inland Rail told Region that “the former gatekeeper’s house at the far western end of Railway Street is located within the Wagga Wagga Railway Station and Yard heritage precinct and will not be affected by the site compound establishment works”.

However, reading between the lines, this is likely to change when earthworks begin.

“Inland Rail, in conjunction with Australian Rail Track Corporation, is undertaking a review of redundant rail assets within the construction zone, and assessing the impact they may have on the construction program and their future uses,” they said.

The gatehouse was built in 1881 by local hardware mogul Charles Hardy, who was responsible for the construction of many of Wagga’s historic buildings in the late 19th century.

While the gatehouse was modest and functional, it was well-made and boasted high-quality joinery, timber floors, solid brickwork and three chimneys.

Intriguingly, the original plans from 1878 show that the final building was constructed in a mirror image of the contract drawing.

Originally it stood beside a level crossing as Best Street continued south from the CBD across the railway corridor and ended in a close.

In 1919, Wagga Council petitioned the Railway Commission to consider building an overhead bridge, something that was fiercely opposed by the Catholic Bishop of Wagga who was not keen to cede any more convent land to the railway.

In December 1922, The Daily Advertiser reiterated church concerns that “it was proposed to throw it into the front portion of the convent grounds, thus seriously depreciating a valuable edifies, spoiling the picturesque garden in front thereof, and tending to ruin the architectural beauty of what is one of the show places of Wagga”.

A departmental inquiry was undertaken in December 1922 with several scenarios presented to try to avoid building a road along the front of the Mount Erin Convent.

In July 1923, Wagga Municipal Council received notice from the railway commissioners of their “intention to close Best Street railway level crossing, to enable them to construct an overhead traffic bridge”.

The new bridge would provide “access from Wagga to populous and rapidly-growing centres on the south of the line” and a strip of land would be resumed from the Mount Erin Convent grounds with the Bishop of Wagga’s approval.

The road was closed in 1924 and a team of more than 70 men and 50 drays set to work building the embankment that would also require a new road linking Sturt and Coleman streets.

According to The Daily Advertiser, the work was perilous as loads of dirt and brick were carried from one side of the line to the other over a temporary crossing shared with the town.

“Many hairbreadth escapes from serious collision have been experienced at the crossing, for as well as the traffic of the drays, many other horse-drawn vehicles and scores of motor vehicles make the crossing daily, and all day long, at irregular intervals, trains are passing through the crossing gates.”

As work was nearing completion after several months of delays, the Advertiser declared that “the dangers of Wagga’s worst level crossing and the inconvenience its gates have for many years caused for all vehicular traffic are nearly over”.

“The dangers of the crossing and the deathtrap pass that leads to it will be no more.”

The gatekeeper, Mrs M’Mullen had lived in the cottage since 1918 and had agreed to retire from the railway service when the bridge opened. She had served for 21 years after spending 14 years as the keeper of the Narrandera gates and seven at Wagga.

The new Best Street Bridge opened in March 1925.

The new road on the southern side of the line would later be renamed Best Street South and then Edmondson Street in 1945 in honour of Corporal John Hurst Edmondson who was killed in World War II.

Suddenly obsolete, and overshadowed by the Best Street overpass earthworks, the cottage was soon relegated to storage duties.

A council survey in 1990 declared that it was in “poor to fair condition”, but it continued to deteriorate over the decades and in 2017 it was targeted by vandals and a string of fires led to rapid deterioration.

Today, the once sturdy cottage is little more than a brick shell and much of the once proud woodwork has been reduced to ash. While it would be sad to see another piece of the city’s heritage fade away, it appears to be beyond saving.

The Best Street Gatekeeper’s Cottage will however live on in miniature, thanks to the efforts of railway enthusiast Rob Nesbitt who is in the process of building a model railway layout covering Wagga and many of the surrounding lines.

You can keep up with Rob’s endeavours and explore more of the region’s railway history through his blog, Building Wagga.