Ballina

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Type : Station
Line : Ballina Branch
Distance from Sydney : 876.870km
Opened : 25 August 1930
Closed : 12 January 1949
Status : Closed
Name meaning : From the Irish place name "Ballina" (Beal an Atha) meaning "mouth of the ford"

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Ballina, 1933 (copyright expired)

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Ballina Railway Station, converted into a motel, 1953.

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Cows waiting at Ballina Station (Peggy Finch)

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Relocated Ballina station master's cottage in 2018 (Uniquely North Coast)

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Location of the one time station at Ballina (now Saunders Park)

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Construction of Ballina station in February 1930

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Construction of Ballina station in February 1930

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6/6/1923 - Ballina - Booyong railway celebrations (Tweed Museum)

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Ballina station, official opening day 20/9/1930

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Ballina (Noel Coombes)

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Ballina station in 1952 (Ballina Historical Society)

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Dismantling the Ballina to Booyong Railway Line 1950, Canal Rd, Ballina

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Ballina (Noel Coombes)

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Allen Richards:


As a young boy in the mid 1950's , my family lived in Lismore , and one of our Sunday afternoon drives was down the to Ballina .
The original road bridge across Fishery creek was about 1/2 a mile North of the now existing bridge, and crossed the next to the rail bridge .
From the bridge the old Ballina rail station building could be seen over to the left .
This building had been converted into a Motel ,
and as mentioned in another comment , was Ballina's first motel .
My father , who was born in and grew up in Ballina , would relate the history of the ill fated Ballina railway line .
The line was intended to branch out from Booyong .
However , as I recall , the branch did not actually start at Booyong station , but a few hundred yards down the track , resulting in passengers having to disembark onto the platform at Booyong and walk down to board the train to proceed on to Ballina .
Those of us who have lived in the area know only to well The wet weather cycles in summer and winter , that the far north coast is renowned for ,
Not making it very attractive to rail travelers to experience a walk in the rain to change trains .
Also , as I remember, dad related that the volume of rail travellers would never make the Ballina rail
link a viable project anyway .
Anyway , as they say , it is now all History .