Spearwood Railway Station
The Spearwood Railway station is a long-forgotten part of Cockburn’s heritage.
In 1905, farmers in the Jandakot area succeeded in their campaign for a railway line to be built from Fremantle to Jandakot, and the line was finished in 1906.
The first mentions of a railway station at Spearwood appear in 1909, when some of the buildings at the Jandakot station were moved to the Spearwood station. Trains ran once a day in each direction. The station was located at the intersection of Rockingham Road and the train line, where Goldsmith and Mell Roads meet Rockingham Road, close to St Jerome’s Church. It was little more than a raised wooden platform covered with dirt and a couple of wooden sheds.
Passenger tours also ran along the line during the 1960s, although they didn’t stop at the old stations.
Although the line was closed to passengers in the 1950s, the nearby Watsonia factory could occasionally persuade the railway service to tack on a couple of extra carriages for special occasions. One Cockburn resident remembers catching the train from Spearwood to the Royal Show in the 1960s with all the factory workers and their families and friends.
The old Fremantle-Jandakot Line is now the Fremantle-Forrestfield freight line, and all that is left of the Spearwood Station are a few wooden posts stuck in the dirt.
Local history questions or anything to add? Please let us know by commenting below.
This article can also be seen on the Cockburn Libraries’ Local History blog.
For more local history articles and photos, head over to the Cockburn Libraries Our Page in History.
Just reading upon the old Spearwood train line, I have not heard of this place until just now. Going back to when it was in first run in 1905 has there been any reports of anything paranormal/haunted around that area of the old Spearwood train platform? I am interested in finding out because my family and i we travel down rockingham road a lot and everytime we come across the train line i feel that something use to be there. So im just wondering if there has been any reports of any hauntings or anything from there.
Hi Ashley,
Hauntings are not something I’ve ever come across in my research at all. However, there have been a number of accidents associated with the crossing, including three fatalities.
The first was Valma Pepworth, who was thrown from the car her husband was driving when he hit an oncoming train in 1926. She died in Fremantle Hospital.
The second and third were Thomas and Arthur McGladdery, a father and son who hit a train when riding their motorbike and sidecar in 1930, trying to beat the train that was approaching the crossing. There’s a photograph published in the newspaper showing where they fell. Arthur died on the scene and Thomas died later in Fremantle Hospital.
-Leah