Moonee Ponds railway station is a commuter railway station on the Craigieburn line, part of the Melbourne railway network. It serves the northern suburb of Moonee Ponds in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Moonee Ponds station is a ground level host station, featuring two side platforms. It opened on 1 November 1860, with the current station provided in 1882. It initially closed on 1 July 1864, then reopened in 9 October 1871.[4]
History
Moonee Ponds station opened on 1 November 1860, just over a week after the railway line opened as part of the private Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company line to Essendon. The station closed with the line on 1 July 1864, but was reopened on 9 October 1871, under government ownership.[5] Like the suburb itself, the station is believed to have gotten its name from either the Moonee Ponds Creek, which resembled a chain of ponds in dry weather (the creek was noted as "Mone Mone Creek" in 1837 by government surveyor Robert Hoddle, during a survey of the area), an Indigenous Australian who was attached to the mounted police, or John Moonee, who had land near the present day Moonee Valley Racecourse.[6][7]
On 4 May 2010, as part of the 2010/2011 State Budget, $83.7 million was allocated to upgrade Moonee Ponds to a premium station, along with nineteen others.[8][9] However, in March 2011, this was scrapped by the Baillieu Government.[10]
^ abTurton, Keith W (1973). Six And A Half Inches From Destiny. The first hundred years of the Melbourne-Wodonga Railway 1873-1973. Australian Railway Historical Society. pp. 23, 86. ISBN0-85849-012-9.
^"Moonee Ponds". Victorian Places. Retrieved 12 February 2023.