John's Blue Mountains Blog

LITHGOW DISTRICT RAILWAY STATIONS. 1. HARTLEY VALE

The locality we know as "Hartley Vale" roughly corresponds to what Governor Macquarie called "The Vale of Clwydd" in 1815. This name has now migrated over the ranges to the eastern end of the Lithgow Valley. "Petrolea Vale" was also used for the locality where kerosene shale (torbanite) was mined. "Kerosene Creek" was applied to the stream draining the main workings.

Hartley Vale 1902 (from "Kerosene Shale Deposits of NSW" by J Carne)

Kerosene Shale (torbanite) is widely distributed in the Illawarra Coal Measures in the western part of the Sydney Basin of NSW. It is much less dense than ordinary black coal but was apparently formed in a similar way from vegetable matter, most likely of algal origin. When heated it liberates large quantities of flammable gas, much of which can be condensed to a liquid which was widely used in lamps before electricity replaced it.

The railway line from Sydney opened at Mt Victoria on 1st May 1868. At first products from the mines went via Victoria Pass to Mt Victoria station by horse drawn trucks. Construction of the Great Zig Zag which took the line down into the Lithgow Valley had been going on for years before the line opened to Bowenfels on 18th October 1869.

The Hartley Vale mining companies constructed a narrow gauge line and a cableway to bring their products to the new railway at what became Hartley Vale Station.

There is an interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 13th April 1866. This is well before the railway was opened to Mt Victoria. "The one great difficulty lies in the matter of carriage. Every ton of mineral must necessarily reach Sydney by the road described in the preceding chapter. (ie via Victoria Pass). This drawback is, however, of a temporary nature.

The great trunk line of New South Wales Railway is in progress within a mile of the works, and will ere long be opened many miles further up the country."

I believe that freight from (or for) Hartley Vale was probably being carried by rail to Mt Victoria before the official opening of the line to Bowenfels in 1869.

The following information comes from NSWrail.net.

Hartley Vale Station.

1876 Opened. 6 April 1975 Closed.

Consisted of a 200m island platform. On the down side were sidings serving a goods shed. There were also exchange sidings for the 1m gauge tramway to the nearby Hartley Vale kerosene works.
2005