East Camberwell Railway Station - History

History

East Camberwell station opened on 14 May 1900, as the interchange station for the Deepdene Dasher service northwards along the Outer Circle line. The Outer Circle line itself had been opened under the line in 1891.

Three platforms were provided, two high level ones for trains on the Lilydale line and a single low level one for trains on the Outer Circle. Steps were provided between all platforms to enable passengers to change between services. Between 1915 and 1922 a signal box at the Melbourne end was provided, to control the junction towards Riversdale (on today's Alamein line), as the three tracks though to Camberwell had been reduced to 2 to allow the regrading works at Camberwell to proceed. The Deepdene Dasher service was withdrawn on 9 October 1927 and the line itself closed on 6 September 1943 when goods services ended.

The platforms on the Lilydale line were rebuilt in 1964 when the Camberwell - East Camberwell third track amplification works were carried out, with the southern platform converted into a island platform. The third track was later extended to Box Hill in 1971. The former wooden station building on platform 1 & 2 was replaced with a brick structure in 1981. It was destroyed by fire on 12 August 1986.

The station was one of four used for the first trials of the myki ticketing system on the rail network, carried out in August 2008 by Kamco staff. The other stations were Canterbury, Chatham and Mont Albert stations.