Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, used to dead-end at a cemetery. Well, it did from about 1820 to about 1895 or so. Then at the turn of that century, all the bodies had to be moved because the powers-that-was decided that great expanse of land would be just dandy for the terminal of the state railways, which commenced in 1855 and until then, terminated at Redfern Station which is off the lower left of the map.
See all that area on the map down there that is now occupied by a maze of rail tracks? All used to be bodies and grave markers. The hassle became, though, how to get from one side of the city to the other once Sydney Central Station was plonked down in the middle of that end of the city. The solution was to dig a tunnel. Well, this is just the largest (and straightest) of a maze of tunnels beneath the train tracks. Now, as to whether they found any bodies still there when digging the tunnels, no one is telling.
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You can just see the dotted line on the map which represents the Devonshire Street Tunnel. This is a very busy pedestrian throughway from one side of the city to the other, and into Central Station itself. The tunnel invariably has a busker or three trying to coerce the unwilling commuter. But the tunnel also has its walls adorned with murals on the history of rail in and around Central Station. They seem to be that sort of painting that is air-brushed on to thin metal and then tacked into position. The other parts of the tunnel are tiled. The effect is quite pleasing, I reckon.
