Wards River

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Type : Station
Line : North Coast Line
Distance from Sydney : 282.783km
Opened : 5 February 1913
Closed : Prior to 1983
Status : Closed
Name meaning : After the nearby river, in turn named after early settlers in the area
Notes:
WARDS RIVER 282.783km/ 74.3m Opened 4.2.1913, closed pre 1983. Line opened from Dungog to Taree 4.2.1913, single track, construction contract from Dungog to Gloucester let to J.C.Willcox on 28.8.1909, contract taken over by Public Works Department 4.11.1911. Named after the river east of the railway line. Up side platform was originally 75.5m long with a B2 standard timber waiting shed containing general and ladies waiting rooms and a store, and built by R.D.Quiggan of Bowcett Street, Mayfield, platform length reduced to 45m WN#21/l 97 4. A small town is marked on the Working Plan about 1.200km south of the station, the road from Stroud Road to Gloucester passed alongside the station. The town contained Wards River Hotel and a combined dance room and church. School opened 1.1872, post office opened 15.5.1913. 1965 - Gate keeper removed from level-crossing. 10.8.1980 - Goods siding removed. 9.8.1983 - Platform demolished.

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Location of the one time station at Wards River (Six Maps)

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Railway cutting on the property of the Barkwell's at Wards River

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Wards River (Claude Nolan)

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The Timber Industry of Wards River
This plaque commemorates the owners, managers, mill workers, bush men, and their families of the once thriving timber industry centred on the village of Wards River.
The saw mills included Turner & Ebbeck; G & D Mackay ; A J Fenning ; E D Pike & Co ; R J White & Co ; W D Wood ; Yates Bros and numerous contractors.
This is the site of the Wards River railway yard from where much of the timber sawn at these mills, plus railways sleepers & girders cut by broad-axe, piles, posts & pit timber, all drawn from the surrounding forests began their journey to points around the nation and to Newcastle and Sydney for shipment overseas.
The "dobby" parked nearby was one of the earliest of many built by A B Campbell & Sons Gloucester and used to haul logs behind a crawler tractor in the bush and mill yard.
Presented to the Wards River Progress Association by the family of the late George Mackay to mark the closure on 26 November 1999 of G & D Mackay Sawmillers after approximately 75 years operation.

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A view from NT-25 at km. 282.600, the site of Ward's River station and yard on the left. 6-1-1997 (Graeme Kirkby)