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Welcome to Eveleigh Stories

Delve deeper into the history of Eveleigh through stories, chronology, archives, photo galleries and video

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Evolving Eveleigh

Here at Eveleigh blacksmiths once toiled amongst a labyrinth of anvils, presses, hearths and hammers which remain virtually unchanged

Explore the workshops
Faces in the crowd

Gain insight into some of the people who worked at Eveleigh and some who lived nearby

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Eveleigh's Iron Alchemy

The Eveleigh Workshops were innovative and adaptive, enduring the evolution of technologies from steam to diesel and, later electrification of the railway system.

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Explore Eveleigh

Discover history of Eveleigh through our interactive map

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About

Eveleigh Stories was developed in response to community interest in the history of the area and tells people’s stories in the context of the whole Eveleigh Railway Workshops precinct and the broader locality.

Archive

Our archive includes documents compiled by the former Redfern Waterloo Authority and Australian Technology Park Sydney Limited.

Chronology

The chronology presents significant dates and events in the history of the Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh Railway Workshops precinct and the locality, including Redfern, Waterloo and Alexandria

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An Indigenous Place

Eveleigh is Gadigal country. We acknowledge their ownership of this land and pay our respects to past, present and emerging elders.

The second half of the nineteenth century saw a rapid expansion in New South Wales railways. In Sydney, this meant both the early stations and workshop facilities quickly became too small, and had to be expanded or relocated.

40,000 BC

Pre contact – Members of Cadigal, or Gadigal, people inhabit Redfern, Erskineville and surrounds. The Gadigal Traditional Owners who today speak for the Sydney clan area stretched “from the south side of Port Jackson from South Head to Petersham”. The Gadigal people spoke the coastal Eora dialect of the Darug language and are often referred to as the Eora people. Redfern as a site was important to its people because it had a source of water – Shea's Creek, which today is Alexandra Canal, as well as a source of food from the wetlands that drained into the creek. Redfern’s high point on the terrain offered views of the trade route from Circular Quay to Parramatta, on which the colony’s first railway would be built. These trade routes connected with larger routes which linked the north and south, and east and west of Australia. Not only goods, but ideas, songs, ceremonies and news travelled along these routes.

1788

The British arrive in January with catastrophic effect on the Aboriginal way of life. The Eora people do not flee, as Captain James Cook predicted, but stand their ground. Governor Phillip attempts to create good relations, but these soon disintegrate due to the persecution of the Aboriginals by the convicts. The Aboriginals are pushed out of Sydney town with fear of being shot, and with the quick pollution of the Tank Stream by tanneries, they are forced to use water sources near Redfern.

1789

The smallpox plague devastates the Aboriginal people. Without immunity to the disease brought by the British, a large percentage of the Cadigal clan is wiped out. Following the plague, survivors from surrounding clans join together to survive, and to participate in the guerrilla movement led by Pemulwuy.

1791

James Chisholm arrives in the colony of New South Wales aged 19 as a non-commissioned officer.

1793

Settler David Collins observes Cadigal people performing a ceremony “between the town and the brickfield”.