Author: Dr Sue Rosen

Client: Blue Mountains City Council

Sue Rosen prepared this Site History to assist inform the interpretation and management of the Woodford railway cottages.

The site of the cottages at 70 and 70A Great Western Highway was acquired by the Commissioner for Railways for the ‘purpose of erecting traffic officers’ residences at Woodford’ by notification in the New South Wales Government Gazette on 2 August 1911. By 1912, residences for the Station Master and Night Officer, or Assistant Station Master, were constructed on the site at Woodford.  The 1913 Annual Report of the Railway Commissioners noted that over the past six years accommodation at about 75 percent of stations had been ‘completely remodelled and extended to meet the needs of an expanding business.’

Both cottages were designed according to standard designs for Station Officers’ Houses developed by the Department in the 1890s. Little information regarding the occupants of the cottages is available. Blue Mountains City Council rate books indicate that a third cottage also existed on the site but was demolished by 1925. This cottage was probably rented to railway employees such as fettlers, who were working temporarily at Woodford.