Re: Maps

[G.Lambert@unsw.edu.au (Geoff Lambert)]

paul@itsnot.its.unimelb.edu.au (Paul Edwards) wrote:

>In article <340F8E7E.6DDC@harnessnet.com.au>, Craig Haber
><albatross@harnessnet.com.au> wrote:

>> David A. wrote:
>> > 5) Mont Park Asylum branch, which presumably came off somewhere near
>> > Macleod.
>> 

Here's another one.

At Deer Park, on the north and west side of the line, one used to be
able to see what looked like the remains of a roadbed heading off at
45 degrees through the stony wasteland for about a kilometre to what
looked like the remains of a quarry.  It was visible in the 1960's but
was built over by houses in the 1970s and 1980s.

Note that I am not confusing this with the old ICI siding (which was
north  and east of Deer Park), nor with what was eventually known as
Ravenhall, which was south and west.  Nor, of course, with the Boral
siding at Deer Park West Junction.  This was separate from all of
those.  Was it, perhaps the Sandringham Quarry Trust Siding which was
there about 1929 (but this may have been what was later Ravenhall).
Was it, perhaps, a constructionsiding for ballast (therefore circa
1880s).  For the record, the doyen of old sidings and expert on "The
Straight", Jack Maclean, was not able to say whether such a siding
existed.

The reason I raise it here is because it was always my intention to
use old maps or aerial photos to try for some sort of documentary
evidence to support what I thought I saw with may eyes.  I can say
that no map post-1950 that I have seen has any road-bed marked.

Geoff Lambert