Hotham Valley Railway training headquarters on fast track to completion

The Bunnings team defied the weather and worked together with the organisation’s members to repaint the old weather boards and finish off the outside of the building.

“They've supplied the paint, the painting supplies and staff up there painting away, it's fantastic,” Hotham Valley Railway vice-president Brett Mohen said.

“The gutters, the down pipes and the veranda have all been fully restored by our volunteers, but we just reached a point where we just needed some assistance to finish off the outside of the house.

“[Bunnings assistance] it’s going to bring the house to almost completion as a members’ facility.”

The house, which was built shortly after the fires that gutted Dwellingup in 1961, was used as the old Dwellingup Station masters house.

However, it fell into neglect after the train line was in disuse for nearly twenty years until the Hotham Valley Railway team took over the lease three years ago.

Ever since, the volunteers have been slowly improving and renovating the heritage house, hoping to transform the building into a training centre, members’ facility and memorabilia display.

”It's going to be an excellent training facility for a classroom type of training,” Mr Mohen said.

“And being so close to our actual railway yard, our platform and all our equipment we can do the practical in a two-minute walk.”

The team currently trains their railway enthusiasts and future train drivers at their office building in Bassendean, with practical training having to be undertaken more than a hundred kilometres away in Dwellingup.

Once the new facility officially opens towards the end of the year, train lovers will be able to learn all they need to know in the heart of Dwellingup before hitting the rails driving one of the team’s historical locomotives.

“We do all the training in house, so we can take a person who may not know too much about trains and we can teach them everything they need to know over a period of time to be in charge of a large locomotive taking passengers out into the jarrah forest,” Mr Mohan said.

“To have something here, so close to the practical side as well as the theory together that will be fantastic.”

Mr Mohan said the railway team welcomed keen volunteers with open arms, not only those who wished to learn how to drive a train but also anybody keen to work as a waitress, administration staff and maintenance.

“Waiter staff, maintenance staff who just want to do some odd jobs here and there, we welcome all,” he said.

And as one of the team’s volunteers put it: ‘whatever they want to do we will find a job for them’. 

To find out more about the Hotham Valley Railway team go to hothamvalleyrailway.com.au or call (08) 6278 1114.