Type : Station
Line : North Coast Line
Distance from Sydney : 564.390km
Opened : 3 December 1923 as Nambucca Heads, renamed Nambucca October 1925, renamed Nambucca Heads 21 June 1964
Closed : n/a
Status : In use
Name meaning : Aboriginal word meaning "crooked river"
Notes : The Up slab concrete platform was 198 metres long on opening and was reduced to 76.2 metres by 1932. Original station building was timber, this was replaced in 1945 with a brick building consisting of a men's toilet, out-of room, SM's office and general and ladies waiting rooms. A 304mm bore column sited at each end of the platform provided water pumped from the nearby Deep Crek. The station is approximately 5km from the town it serves. 9/1/1934 - central interlocked loop installed. 28/1/1945 - station destroyed by fire and replaced with existing brick building. 22/4/1945 - ash pit installed at Up end of the platform. 25/9/1984 - water tower demolished. Nambucca has a 1943 metre crossing loop and a 100 metre dead end siding facing the Down side of the loop.
Nambucca Heads, September 1982 (Greg Lee)
Nambucca Heads 1982 (Greg Lee)
This is the pump that supplied water to nearby Nambucca station and located on Deep creek. It was restored by Barry Pade. the reservoir still exists and supplies water to property owners that have bought the original pade farm. my photos from the rusty iron rally 2013..maybe (David Day)
Nambucca Heads Station - opened under that name iin 1923, renamed to Nambucca in 1925 and back to Nambucca Heads in 1964. The station is still in use. (NSW Heritage)
Railway construction. The placing of the last rail in position on the Kempsey - Grafton section of the North Coast Railway Line, at the Deep Creek Railway Bridge - Nambucca, NSW (SLNSW)
Nambucca Heads (?) in 1919 with railway construction crew (Nambucca and Bellinger News, 4/7/1919)
3813 farewell tour, 1973 at Nambucca Heads (Peter Hillsmith)
Location of Nambucca Heads station (Six Maps)
Nambucca Heads, 1980 (Anthony McLaughlin)
Nambucca September 2021 (Jeremy Williams)
4002 heading up a passenger train at Nambucca Heads (undated) (State Archives)
Nambucca Heads, 1973 (Peter Jones) (3813 farewell tour)
Nambucca Heads station gardening award, 1988 (Nambucca Museum)
Nambucca wriiten on the back (hopefully accurately). 4535 on a freight (another Kodak Brownie shot), also late 60s, early 70s. (Ken Oates)
Grandma Keast, gatekeeper at level crossing gates - Nambucca Heads. June,1957. (Nambucca Museum)
4527 trundles through Nambucca on the North Coast Mail, probably 1970s. Scan from a slide. (Ken Oates)
Taken on the 19th of August 1985.
4403 heads north with train NL11 The North Coast Mail, crossing the Nambucca River with the down service. (Chris Stratton)
Original Nambucca Heads station... source unknown
This building was destroyed by fire in 1945.
3525 at Numbucca Heads after 1924, but before 1940.
Nambucca level crossing circa 1942, Mrs Keasts house (gatekeepers) partly obscured by the trees LHS of crossing
Photo credit Trevor Peck Nambucca station
Bill Burley, Bill Keast, J Maldne & L Woodcroft at the Pay car on Nambucca railway siding 1957. NB. The other fettlers were busy lifting crab pots
The station at Nambucca Heads, NSW, taken from the window of the passing North Coast Mail train, November 6 1984.
Nambucca Heads is 565km North of Sydney on the NSW North Coast railway. In 1984 the station was served by a few trains each way each day, including the overnight 'North Coast Mail'.
The building seen here is not the main station building, rather it is an auxiliary building that once stood near the down end of the platform. Note the unusual orange colour scheme used to paint the station nameboard and buildings.
Today, Nambucca Heads station is still served by three XPT trains each way each day to and from Sydney to the South, and Grafton, Casino and Brisbane to the north. The North Coast Mail was withdrawn in the late 1980s. The station itself is still in use, but the buildings photographed here have been removed.
Nambucca Heads (Macleay Argus) (undated)
Nambucca Heads (Shane Barry Peninton) (undated)
Nambucca Heads (undated, State Archives)
31/10/1958
NSW State Archives
Nambucca Heads - N275 Goods 31/10/1976 (Neil Munro)
Down Goods at Nambucca - June 1957 (C Clark)
Goods train at Nambucca, 16/4/1954 (Noel Reed)
Nambucca Heads - undated - bridgework construction
Nambucca Heads, probably circa 1920 (Nambucca Headland Museum)
Nambucca Heads, January 1960 (State Archives)
Nambucca Heads, July 1982 (State Archives)
Fettlers at Nambucca Heads
Nambucca Heads Relay Rack, JZA 700 Time Division Multiplex Telemetry T.D.M system. Data Communications to Broadmeadow. (Bob McAlpine)
Circa 1960 John Wood changing the staff 4012 up goods (Nambucca Headland Museum)
Nambucca Heads - January 2024 (Nam Keast)
Nambucca Heads, 2008 (Syd Ramsay)
Nambucca Heads, 2008 (Syd Ramsay)
NT36 at Nambucca Heads, 15/05/2024 (Steve Shotton)
Failed NT34 - 6/11/2024 (Paul Dalton)
NL 81 with 4520 4490 4306 enters the loop in the pouring rain 🌧 at Nambucca Heads.
10/4/98 (Greg Riddel)