Steam trains once stopped here. They would chuff and whoosh to a halt, and visitors from Geelong or Ballarat would alight on their way to the racecourse or the spectacular Lal Lal Falls.
Children would skip along the platform waiting to commute to school, while local farmers popped into the post office that was once part of a busy community hub.
Now the bluestone building is empty and boarded up. Built in 1862 and once staffed by a score of employees, the Lal Lal railway station was decommissioned 40 years ago. The trains had already stopped coming three years earlier.
A local tells visitors to be wary of the resident ghost. It's an appropriate enough warning … Lal Lal is now what is known as a ghost station.
There were 608 stations and platforms in Victoria in 1940, according to research by the Victorian Railway History Library, located at the Prahran Mechanics Institute. There are now just 90 across the state's remaining seven regional train lines.
The fate of Victoria's ghost stations varies greatly. Some were demolished, while some were left to slowly decay.
Others, however, have been saved from that indignity. The complex that was once the St Arnaud railway station is now the St Arnaud raillery hub, an art gallery. The old Trentham railway station is the Central Highlands town's visitor information centre and a museum.
There are former stations that have new lives that are arguably more glamorous than when they were still in use. The Timboon station complex is a distillery, while the old Wodonga station is a fashionable social destination.
But these are exceptions. Most have just disappeared.
"They [first closed] passenger services on many branch lines, as well as the little-used stations on the main lines," Victorian Railway History Library president Don Barker said.
"Some of those branch lines are still open for freight, especially grain, but passenger services are long gone."
"The reason is simple. A lack of patronage. Obviously, the car [played a part] but it was too expensive to provide a rail service for perhaps a dozen people on the line.
"The big change came in 1981 with a thing the state government called 'the New Deal'. They consolidated a lot of the passenger services and that's when they cut out a lot of stations that had low patronage.
"The new deal sped up the services, put catering on the trains, and that caused a considerable revival, so it was a positive, just not for smaller stations.
"I feel very sad about it. As a train person, I think every line should be open."
For the old Lal Lal station, at least, there will be a happy ending to this story.
While the near-identical station at Yendon was demolished (local historian Kaye Patton suggesting the bluestone was sent to the then-Ballarat University to be used in gutters), Lal Lal will be treated to a $750,000 refurbishment that will see it used as a community hub, tourist centre, and a historic steam train stop-off.
"This has been a community project for 20 years, but the funding is now there and it will finally happen," Friends of the Lal Lal Community Hub group president Sue Witherspoon explained.
"It is just a building we did not want to lose."
Tracking down the past
The history and mystery of old disused railway stations have their own community of dedicated enthusiasts.
Jasmine Jones is a contributor to a Facebook group of abandoned train station explorers.
Originally from Lake Boga, now living in Queensland, she visits these ghost stations, takes photos and then shares them with the Abandoned Railways group's 5,000 followers.
"It was a step-by-step process really. I moved to a new area, and was literally chasing waterfalls and looking at historic sites," Ms Jones said.
"I kept coming across old rail. I started getting into it and putting up photos and then other people started getting into it too."
Ms Jones said, unlike other rail fans, she was more interested in exploring railway lines and platforms than the trains themselves.
"I haven't been interested in trains all my life. I'm not a train spotter. To be honest, I'm more enamoured with the structures rather than the trains," she explained.
"My process is a little bit odd. I often come across something quite haphazardly. I do a lot of driving around and I'll come across a location.
"I have a bit of a scout around to see what's there and take a few photos.
"I then tend to go home and start investigating. I search on the internet, look at old maps, old newspapers and find out a bit more about the history, why it was abandoned, and if there is, say, a bridge nearby. I then head on back, take more photos, look for old photos, and take comparative photos."
Ms Jones said there was "something spooky about some of those places".
"Sometimes there are the remnants of an old township or an old cemetery nearby. One hundred years ago there were hundreds of people here, three pubs, and now it's nothing.
"I like to sit there and picture what it looked like back then."
The history of Victoria's railways and individual stations is well documented by many volunteer organisations, including Victorian Railway History Library, Steamrail Victoria, Geelong and Southwestern Rail Heritage Society, along with many local history groups.
Victorian Railway History Library secretary Milton Biddle said they had a selection of volumes titled Victoria's railway stations: An architectural study.
"There are five volumes dated 1982. It gives details of each station's construction date, style and period, builder, contract number and date, present condition and even a plan," he said.
"If I wanted to find out more after that, I would possibly try the Public Records Office of Victoria, or the state library."
