Station Names on Melbourne's Sunbury Line

Moving along, we have another part of the name origin series that will be covered in this article.

Today's topic, the Sunbury Line!

Sunbury Line stations from the PTV map, does not include White City or Holden.

This article will cover every station on the Sunbury Line from Middle Footscray to Sunbury. This includes eleven stations that are open and two that are currently closed. For information on stations such as North Melbourne, South Kensington, Footscray, you can view my article on the Williamstown line, which can be found here.

With that out of the way, let us find out where some of these names come from!

Middle Footscray

Middle Footscray's name is of obvious origin, being right in between Footscray and West Footscray. I have already written in an earlier post that Footscray is named after the town of Foots Cray in England.

West Footscray

Footscray is the westernmost of the Footscray area's three stations and is located in the suburb of the same name.

Prior to September 1912, West Footscray was known as 'Footscray West'. A siding known as 'Munro's Private Siding' also existed prior to the opening of the station.

Tottenham

Tottenham is very clearly named after the town of the same name in England. The name is thought to have come from a farmer known as 'Totta'.

White City (closed)

The former station of White City was named after the former greyhound track of the same name. The track of course is named after the track in England.

1966 Melways map showing White City and Tottenham Stations. The greyhound track had closed by this point so it is nowhere to be found.

White City greyhound track closed in December 1955, but it was not until October 1981 that White City station would close. The reason for this was due to the removal of the Ashley Street level crossing, which saw the rebuilding nearby Tottenham and the need for this station reducing.

Sunshine

Named after the Sunshine Harvester Works, which existed until 1997. This was done because of a petition that requested the name change.

Argus article calling for the construction of buildings at Braybrook Junction (Sunshine).

Prior to July 1907, the station was known as 'Braybrook Junction', named after the station being the point where the Ballarat Line splits off from the Bendigo Line. It should also be noted that the petition for the station's name change requested that the name be changed to 'Sunshine Junction', although the last part of that name dropped by the time the name change took place.

Albion

Albion is an alternative name for the island of Great Britain. The name Albion stems from industrial origins, with the station believed to have been named after a quarry which was originally on the site of Sunshine Energy Park.

Google Street view of John Darling and Son flour mill, which inspired the original name of Albion station.

One of Albion's old names also shared this trait, with its original incarnation being known as 'Albion and Darlington'. The Darlington part of the name comes from the nearby John Darling and Son flour mill.

Ginifer

Ginifer is quite the interesting name. It comes from Labor MP John "Jack" Ginifer, who held the former seat of Keilor. Ginifer died in 1982, the same year as the station opened, so people such as Tom Rigg requested that the station be named in his honour.

As well Ginifer Station, Jack Ginifer also inspired the names of various places across Melbourne's west, such as this reserve in Gladstone Park.

The name Ginifer was chosen very late into the stations development, with the original name of the station being 'Furlong', named after Furlong Road, which crosses the railway line south of the station. This Railpage thread also has some interesting information regarding Ginifer (just ignore the fact that the discussion was supposed to be about Patterson!)

St Albans

The name is thought to originated from Alfred Padley, a land manager responsible for the development of the suburb in the nineteenth century. Padley's family had an association with the Saint Albans Abbey in England.

Keilor Plains

Keilor Plains name was chosen as part of a naming competition before the station opened in 2002. The name reflects an original name for St Albans and the surrounding area. The name Keilor was provided by James Watson in the nineteenth century, and came from a property his father owned in Scotland.

The St Albans area has changed a lot since the sixties. Keilor Plains Station would not exist until 2002.

The station was originally supposed to be known as Taylors Road, named after the road that crosses the line north of the station. Taylors Road name comes from William Taylor, an early settler of the Keilor area who had purchased the Overnewton property.

Watergardens

Watergardens has the honour of being one of three stations in Melbourne named after a shopping centre. The name itself was inspired by Taylors Creek, which is the creek that runs right through the centre.

Watergardens has had a few interesting names, one of which was 'Keilor Road', named after the original name given to the Melton Highway. This name was changed to 'Sydenham' in April 1887.

When the Sunbury line terminated at Watergardens, the line was known as the Sydenham line.

The Sydenham name is a little more interesting. Sydenham's name origin was never recorded, but it is safe to assume that the name comes from the London district of the same name. The station was renamed to Watergardens in 2002, although the line was referred to as the Sydenham line from 2002 right up until electrification was extended to Sunbury in 2012.

Holden (closed)

Holden takes it name from nearby Holden Road.

An article from the Bacchus Marsh Express requests that Holden station be re-opened.

Both opened and closed in 1860, although there have been requests to reopen it. The station building was also supposed to be used at Gisborne.

Diggers Rest

Diggers Rest's name origins are fairly self-evident, it was a stopping place used by diggers travelling from Melbourne to Bendigo. Not much else to say about it.

Resting digger. Credit: Canstock

Sunbury

Name comes from a town in England known as Sunbury-on-Thames, with that name inspired by the name of a Saxon chief known as Sunna.

If you want something to laugh at, check out the supposed meaning of Goonawarra here.

Conclusion

That is it for this part! As always, make sure to share, and comment! Next blog post will be a short one.

Sources

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Berkshire History.com

Hidden London

Melbourne PTV Gallery

Parliament Victoria

Railpage

Victorian Collections

Victorian Places

Vicsig

VR History

Trove