Helensburgh NSW 2508
Metropolitan Colliery Dump Siding Over-bridge
Last updated 7 July 2026
Private colliery land. This structure lies on Metropolitan Colliery property and is not accessible to the public. The original single line passed through what is now the Metropolitan Tunnel area before the 1915 deviation.
While reading a thread on the popular Rail Page forums, I discovered a post regarding an old tunnel-like structure unearthed under tonnes of coal at the Metropolitan Colliery. From a historian’s point of view, this is a significant find. The photo snapped by user McOZ shows the remains of an over-bridge (single-span viaduct) that passed over the original single-line railway. The Illawarra Line opened on 3 October 1888 and closed on 30 May 1915 in this area, when the Helensburgh Deviation was constructed on a friendlier grade.
The over-bridge was used as a dump siding* from the Metropolitan Colliery yard from 1903. The discovery clearly establishes the colliery and the railways department didn’t completely destroy at least one of the two known over-bridges between the Metropolitan Tunnel and Camp Creek.
The over-bridge/viaduct is located between the original junction/branch line of the Metropolitan Colliery and the Camp Creek culvert, as indicated in several historical photos.
The dump siding line over-bridge was required by the colliery to:
- dump waste rock (typically shales and siltstone that comprises approximately 20% of total mined material)
- provide a temporary wood store (to shore up mine roofs and walls)
- store coal wagons
- provide extra storage space
The erection of the over-bridge must have been of value to the Metropolitan Colliery as its construction would have been slightly costly. A heritage assessment report for the Metropolitan Colliery (August 2008, Michael Pearson — original PDF no longer online), produced in August 2008 by Michael Pearson of Heritage Management Consultants Pty Ltd, states that “Rail lines are said to survive beneath the coal stockpile on top of the structure.”
Just after exiting the eastern side of the over-bridge, photos suggest the single line was forked into as many as four different lines. Also revealed are not only the colliery’s rail line heading from the main ground facilities east and across the Illawarra Line, but another rail line that headed up to the top of the “Island” — a geographically high point of land within the Metropolitan Colliery’s facilities, still clearly visible with flora today. A temporary dray bridge was also constructed over the Illawarra Line, positioned halfway between the dump siding over-bridge and the colliery junction.
Proposed works at the Metropolitan Colliery surface facilities area could have potential impacts on this structure — namely, “be affected by future changes to stockpile management.”
Unfortunately nothing of the rail formation past the original junction of the Metropolitan Colliery’s branch line exists today that we know of. Coal stockpiles and filtration dams now occupy this whole area as the ground level has risen dramatically since the early 1900s.
The original branch-line cutting is still intact today and can be seen from satellite imagery. Some old original rail remains in the branch-line cutting.
*Discharge point for loaded shuttle cars and other haulage devices. Also location of supplies in a production section, e.g. timber dump.
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Originally posted 18 July 2010 on the Helensburgh WordPress blog; refreshed June 2026.