Bomb-blast walls for air-raid shelters, roots from Moreton Bay figs more than 13 metres above, and graffiti scribbled on tunnel walls by World War II soldiers.
Welcome to Sydney’s subterranean world, which will open to the public later this year when regular tours of abandoned rail tunnels at St James station begin, almost 100 years after they were completed.
Community assets manager Andrew Killingsworth deep inside St James station’s abandoned southern tunnels.Credit: Nick Moir
After watching a multimedia display beamed onto one of the disused platform walls, visitors will tour the southern tunnels beneath Hyde Park. Some of the graffiti sprayed on the walls is by people who have broken into the tunnels over the decades.
Stepping back in time, they will trudge with gumboots through water about 20 centimetres deep in places which seeps from the park above and regularly needs to be pumped out.
Stretching about a kilometre north and south from St James station, the ghost tunnels have been used to shoot films and TV shows, including The Matrix Revolutions and the 1990s series Police Rescue.
Built in the 1920s, the tunnels housed an experimental mushroom farm in the 1930s, and air-raid shelters and an RAAF control room during World War II.
Community assets manager Andrew Killingsworth said visitors would experience 100 years of Sydney’s rail history when hour-long ticketed tours of the southern tunnels began late this year.
“Sydney is blessed with many great tourist attractions, but this one is unique. It’s not just a history experience – it’s actually an adventure into a part of Sydney that has been closed for so long,” he said.
“It will reconnect Sydneysiders with the past. The acoustics, the aura of the tunnels is something quite different, and the fact that it’s located right in the centre of Sydney under Hyde Park has been an attraction for movie producers over the years.”
Transport Minister John Graham tours the disused southern tunnels at St James station. Credit: Nick Moir
About $1 million has been spent on safety, heritage works and visitor infrastructure in the disused tunnels ahead of the tours starting.
Killingsworth said he hoped the tours would be a springboard for other uses for the tunnels, adding that the opportunities for tourism and visitor attractions were “very significant”.
The government will shortly seek interest from tour operators to run the guided walks several times a day.
Transport Minister John Graham said the doors to the tunnels were finally about to be thrown open to ticketed tours after much talk.
“Tours like BridgeClimb on the Harbour Bridge are now a must-do experience for Sydney locals and visitors alike. In time, we want to see tours of the St James tunnels become just as popular,” he said.
The former Coalition government had planned to open the southern tunnels to tours in late 2023.
In 2018, then-transport minister Andrew Constance announced plans to transform Sydney’s “hidden gem” into a tourist drawcard to rival similar attractions in London, Paris and New York. He described the ghost tunnels at the time as “a blank canvas” for arts, hospitality or retail.
Tour groups will be struck by the high humidity underground as they traverse the southern tunnels, which almost reach as far as beneath the Anzac Memorial at Hyde Park. Blast walls are located about every 30 metres along the tunnels, requiring visitors to walk through narrow passages.
The far end of the southern tunnels almost reach beneath the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park. Credit: Nick Moir
Built as part of famed engineer John Bradfield’s plans for Sydney’s underground railway, the disused St James tunnels were constructed to “future-proof” the train network.
The line from St James to Central Station was Sydney’s first underground railway, and the intention of the disused tunnels was for them to one day extend to the eastern suburbs and to the west.
December next year marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of St James and Museum stations, which were connected to Circular Quay in 1956 when the City Circle rail line was completed.
The disused northern tunnel beneath Macquarie Street is used to store maintenance equipment and will remain off-limits to tours. At the far end of the 500-metre tunnel from St James station is a pool known colloquially as “Lake St James” where water has collected.
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