Type : Station
Line : North Coast Line
Distance from Sydney : 324.023km
Opened : 5 February 1913
Closed : Station closed July 1965 , loop still in use
Status : in use
Name meaning : An Aboriginal word meaning "bend in the river"
Notes : The 76.2 metre platform with a timber station building consisting of a ladies and general waiting room and an out-of room was located on the Up side of the line and included a cream shed. Passenger services were withrawn in July 1965 and the site was closed on or before 22nd August 1984 when the station buildings were demolished. On 1/11/1924 a 402 metre centrally interlocked loop was opened. Bulliac has a 1635 metre crossing loop and a 274 metre dead end siding (converted from a loop siding 2/12/1988).
Bulliac station, circa 1940 (SRA Archives)
Lorraine Jones:
"Now merely a super-long passing loop probably 1.5km or thereabouts with no platform. Caters for the triple-headed freight trains that are now a regular feature of the North Coast Line."
Lorraine Jones:
Bulliac Railway Station was opened on the 5th February 1913 and was closed in 1978. Bulliac is an indigenous word meaning "a bend in the river".
The station was located on the Up side [south western] of the line approximately 324 km from Sydney [this distance varied due to line realignment over the years]. Bulliac was an attended station with safe working by electric train staff. From the 17th October 1924, the station precinct included a crossing loop and goods siding.
Bulliac Station was a very important link to the nearest school at Pitlochry for the school-age children living in and near Bulliac. The children would catch the 452 goods train to Pitlochry Station and then walk across to the one-teacher Pitlochry School.
Some of the Bulliac children lived on the opposite [northern] side of the Gloucester River and used a "flying fox" to cross the river to walk to the station and catch this train to school. This train was notorious for late running meaning the children would often be late for school and prone to falling asleep in class. The sole teacher at the school often had to use the morse code facility at Pitlochry station to find out where the train was with his "missing" pupils.
There was a single line tunnel on the southern side of the station which led to an attended road level crossing at approximately 321km from Sydney. This crossing was approximately 235 metres from the tunnel on a curve which meant it was a danger for car drivers in both directions, the locomotive crews of trains leaving the tunnel and the gatekeepers themselves. There was a small unattended platform on the southern side of the road crossing used by the gatekeeper's children and the Hay family children who lived nearby in the 1950's and 1960's to travel on the 452 goods train to Pitlochry School.
On the 4th January 1945, a bull reportedly jumped the crossing gates onto the track where it was then hit by the Second Division of the Grafton to Sydney Mail Train at 11.30pm. The Driver felt a jolt and the leading wheels of the tender immediately left the rails. The driver applied the brakes and the train stopped after travelling another 170 yards [155 metres]. The remains of the bull were then found caught up in the wheels and brakes of the 4th carriage. As a consequence, the train was delayed for nearly 4 hours while the train crew removed the carcase and an engine brought from Taree to take the train onto Sydney.
Another derailment at Bulliac occurred in 1961 when the south-bound Brisbane Express left the tracks at Bulliac Station [see photographs].
Postscript: Robert Selman provided a better later version of the original 1913 signal diagram which I have also included below. This also allows easier location of the original station site as evidence of the level crossing shown in this diagram is still in existence as the track access railing ramp next to the signal hut and can be seen from passing XPT carriages.
BULLIAC STATION & CAMP - 1963 (Lorraine Jones)
Bulliac Station 1960 (Edna Wakley)
BULLIAC STATION - Early 1940's (Lorraie Jones)
Bulliac Station - early 1960's (Lorraine Jones)
BULLIAC STATION - 1960's (Lorraine Jones)
Lorraine Jones:
It is my recollection both Bulliac and Bundook stations were closed at the same time in 1978. This was 3 years after the small platforms between Gloucester and Taree were closed in June 1975. Pitlochry Station was closed in 1964 - a few years after Pitlochry School was closed.
I have previously posted an experience of one of my school friends whose father was a fettler based at Bulliac and her mother was the official gatekeeper for the road crossing on the southern side of the Bulliac tunnel in the late 1950's/early 1960's. Their daughter was and remains a good friend of mine to the present day and I have stayed overnight in the gatekeeper's cottage as mentioned in other topics relating to Bulliac.
I repost my earlier post on an incident in the Bulliac Tunnel close to this station for those who are not aware of my earlier post:
" Some time ago in another related post, I mentioned an incident involving "Ziggy" Wolski in the 1960's when he was riding a hand trike inside Bulliac Tunnel and encountered a train coming the other way. I discussed this today with my friend who lived there at the time and she not only confirmed the incident occurred but also confirmed she was riding with her father at the time this incident occurred.
Her father pushed her off the trike into one of the refuges which fortunately was level with the trike and he dived into a refuge on the other side of the track. They both survived uninjured but the oncoming engine completely destroyed the trike - she doesn't remember what happened afterwards regarding the destruction of the trike or how it might have been "covered up".
How it happened was most likely due to her father ignoring/forgetting to take the elementary safety precaution her mother used regarding opening the road gates for passing road traffic. When a car sounded its horn to indicate gate opening was required, her mother would use a railway phone installed in the gatekeeper's cottage to find out if any trains were likely to be in the vicinity of the crossing before opening the gates to allow the vehicle(s) to pass. If a train was due, she would wait until it passed before opening the gates."
When travelling home from Pitlochry School to Doon-Ayr on a steam-hauled mixed goods train in the guards van or an attached carriage; I would sometimes be transferred to the driver's cab at Bulliac or Wirradgurie platforms because it was extremely difficult to stop the rear of the train aligned with the small Doon-Ayr platform as the rear of the train would be in the cutting before the platform and the engine would be in the cutting immediately to the north of the platform such that it was impossible for the driver to position the train for me to safely alight.
Even to this day, my partner is envious of my experiences of regular riding in a steam locomotive cab; his only experience of a mainline cab ride has been on 3830 returning to Sydney from the Maitland Steamfest in 2002 when he was the joint winner of two cab rides from Maitland to Broadmeadow when 3801 and 3830 double-headed on the return trip to Sydney. The drivers went WOT on the Hexham straight and the acceleration of the two locomotives pulling completely full carriages, in his words, was an "awesome experience".
My partner previously asked me about the 1960's "flying fox" across the river near Bulliac station; I remember this well and last time I looked from the XPT when passing through Bulliac, the access road to the location of the flying fox appears still used so a visit is planned for next time we visit and hopefully get some photos if we can get permission from the property owner.
Build a railway and hopefully the Post Office will follow - Bulliac, 1910
January 1940, Mt George and Bulliac stations win awards for their gardens.
Bulliac area (undated, State Records)
4467 on 272N at Bulliac 7-10-83 (Garry Holt)
4844 on 274N at Bulliac 7-10-83 (Gary Holt)
Bulliac (Chris Harrison)
Bulliac - derailment of Brisbane Express 29/5/1961 (The Mirror)
Bulliac traffic hut, no longer in use (Nick Wells)
South of Bulliac, undated, State Archives
Bulliac station (State Archives)
Bulliac stgation, undated, State Archives
Bulliac Station Notes:
Bulliac location was converted from pre CTC local control panel operated by traffic officer to full CTC remote operation from CTC control centre Broadmeadow on 9-08-1982 & electric staff working abolished (Yumbunga Bulliac Bundook)
Photo courtesy Phil Calvert collection.
Greg Riddel.
Ron Wallis, is seated on the left end. It was taken at a railway camp at Bulliac about 1950. The two people in the front are the Ganger and Assistant Ganger. (Dawn Bartlett)
Bulliac Local control panel with NT 36 having crossed 2WB7.
25-11-24 (Greg Riddel)
Bulliac phone cabin North 📞 left to one side after the Country end loop extension with this loop also being extended towards the city end.
Circa 2024 (Greg Riddel)