Barfold's got a few secrets...

Valerie Hornbuckle

There's a secret life to lots of places around and about which a carload of people on their way to somewhere other would not even guess let alone stop to explore.

Barfold Hall is one such place. It sits as any well cared for little wooden building would beside the Kyneton-Redesdale Road not giving any hint of its past life. It's survived some of the fiercest bushfires the district has known, the latest was being on the edge of the roaring flames which whipped by it destroying countryside and homes nearby on Black Saturday 2009. But survival aside, this building didn't begin life as the Barfold Hall. It was originally the Emberton State School several miles away from where it now stands. When finished being used as a school, it was occupied by workers constructing the railway line, acted as a meeting place from time to time, and more. Then in 1894 it was purchased by the Mechanics' Institute Committee for the sum of 25 pounds and taken by bullock team to its present site in 1906.

There was also a railway line running through Barfold, although its existence is a little more obvious than the hall's past given that the raised up area the railway track went along can be seen parallel to the road in the paddocks. A station was at Barfold just nearby the hall on the Redesdale side, although it was more in the form of a hut rather than a grand structure we are familiar with in the towns of the district.

The railway did more than transport passengers. A true reflection of the agricultural life of the area, it was a means of getting stock to markets which leads us to another feature no longer seen in its full form beside the Barfold Hall. The remnants of stock yards (the first ones were constructed in the early 1890s) could be clearly seen there until recent days. Almost gone now, they were a major trading area for farmers in the district. Sheep came from far and wide, sometimes being walked over land for several days to the Barfold sales. When sold, sheep were often loaded up into stock trucks pulled by locomotives and chuffed down the line to major centres such as Newmarket in Melbourne.

The closure of the Kyneton to Redesdale rail line in 1954 meant the end of rail transport of fat lambs and other stock after the sales. They had to go by road. Stock sales at Barfold continued for about three years after the rail line closed, then after that stock was trucked to Kyneton, Newmarket or perhaps Bendigo for sale. And that was certainly the end of an era for the Barfold district, and indeed, the surrounds of the little hall. So next time you drive through Barfold, there are a few things to think about, aren't there?

(Thanks to the Kyneton Historical Society for allowing us to photograph the old pictures.)

 

The Barfold Hall today. It still looks very much as it did more than 100 years ago.

A relic from the past dating from the days when the surrounds of Barfold Hall were a hive of activity.

Remnants of the rail line can still be seen on a private property beside the hall.

Sheep were taken by truck from the yards when the rail line had closed. This photo is dated 1957.

 Fat lamb sale at Redesdale around 1956