By Garry Maddox
Ghost platforms. A faded poster that says “AIR RAID SHELTER”. An old dead man’s handle, which Red Rattler train drivers gripped as a failsafe measure. Advertising for the long-gone Mark Foy’s department store. A bullet hole in a marble pillar. A frieze unearthed after a fire in a Hungry Jack’s.
Marc Cote at Central Station, where his walking tour Secrets of the City Circle starts and finishes. Credit: Nick Moir
For passengers who take millions of train trips on Sydney’s City Circle loop every year, these glimpses of history go largely unnoticed. Marc Cote is changing that.
His Secrets of the City Circle walking tour, running on Saturday as part of the National Trust’s Australian Heritage Festival, is a fascinating two-and-a-half hours of subterranean stories.
It focuses on more than a century of history since John Bradfield, the visionary chief engineer for Metropolitan Railway Construction and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, decided to extend the line from Central through the city – first to Museum and St James (1926), then to Town Hall and Wynyard (1932) and finally Circular Quay (1956).
The monthly tour has been so popular since late last year – taking a maximum of 30 people each time – that Cote, an amateur historian with a background in promotions and events, is about to run it fortnightly.
“I started the tour because I’d picked up so many little nuggets of information,” he says. “I saw really good potential for people, even the ones who lived in Sydney all their lives, to learn about the history.”
When we meet Cote at Central Station’s platform 1, two passengers, confused by his tour guide’s high-vis vest, are asking him about departure times.
Once he is free, he runs through the history of the station, built on the site of a former cemetery and opened in 1906, then walks us to an archway that was once a VIP entrance.
“The governor used to come in with his horse and cart, straight into his train so he could go to his private residence in the Southern Highlands,” he says. “General [Douglas] MacArthur [who came to Australia as Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area] in World War II was also known for using the trains at platform 1.”
A frieze in the Central station cafe that was rediscovered after a 2015 fire at Hungry Jack’s in the same location.Credit: Nick Moir
Near the station entrance is a notch on a marble pillar, which Cote says is damage from a bullet fired when military guards subdued rioting soldiers – shooting one dead – in what is called the Liverpool Riot in 1916. The soldiers, protesting poor conditions at an army camp, had been drinking in Liverpool before commandeering trains then rampaging through the city.
Heading down towards the new Metro platforms there is a display – on a giant metal mural – of items unearthed on the site, including broken crockery, a horseshoe and a key.
The tour is only in public areas, but Cote points out, from an elevator, Central’s two so-called ghost platforms, 26 and 27, that were built for possible future lines but never required.
Taking in the station rather than rushing somewhere for a change, it is noticeable how stunning the redesigned Central looks now the Metro platforms are operating. “They’ve done a really good job of not losing the old while making it look even better,” Cote says.
After catching a train to Museum, he points out old ads lining the platform for the likes of Mark Foy’s, Mortein and Bushells Tea. Apart from the addition of an elevator near the main entrance, “it’s pretty much the same as when it was built,” he says.
The stop at St James takes in the displays around the station that include the old dead man’s handle and a history of the ghost tunnels, built to future-proof the train network, that are due to be opened up for regular tours later this year.
Cote notes they have been used for film and television shoots, an underground mushroom farm, an RAAF control room and air raid shelters during World War II.
Circular Quay’s big attraction is the view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and Wynyard’s is Chris Fox’s sculpture Interloop, made from treads of the station’s old escalators.
An old key in a display of artefacts near the Metro platforms at Central.Credit: Nick Moir
At Town Hall, Cote shows an old poster for an air raid shelter, halfway up a stairway, that was revealed after removing 70 years of paint in 2014. A sign says the State Government provided shelters for the travelling public when the perceived threat of war in Australia was at its highest in 1942.
The tour finishes in a cafe back at Central that was once the booking office. Cote points out a frieze that covers the history of the state that was rediscovered after a 2015 fire in a Hungry Jack’s outlet. “No one would notice it unless they’re told,” he says.
The Australian Heritage Festival is on until May 18. Details australianheritagefestival.org.au.