October 11, 2023
At the South East corner of Foxes Lair an extension of the bushland incorporates the old Railway Dam site; this from the official brochure:
“When the first steam train passed through Narrogin from Beverley to Albany in 1899, it was a hamlet with few people. However within 30 years, Narrogin was a bustling town with the largest train junction outside of Perth. Over a third of Narrogin’s population were directly dependent on railway employment, and many sports had at least one railways team. These days are long gone.
Steam locomotives require large amounts of fresh water Built in 1912, Railway Dam was the third local water source (after the Narrogin Pool, and then a dam, both of which were near the now derelict railway station).This was solely for railway use, and the town remained critically short of water until a pipeline from the Wellington dam at Collie was constructed in 1954″
The parking area now incorporates a 72 hour RV stop for self contained campers with picnic tables and gas BBQs.
There are two short circular walking trails here, the Dam Walk and the longer Archibald Park Walk; Archibald Park was a constructed jet boat racing circuit built in 1992 with water pumped across from the Railway Dam to the appropriate level and was used briefly for two meetings a year but did not survive long. It was resurrected in 2020 but the following year too much rain made it unusable and again has been abandoned.
