Circa 1870 map of proposed line of Northern Railway through Park. Office of Public Works correspondence, Canterbury Provincial Government.
CH 287 CP265 item ICPW 204/1875 42 (4)
Minute about Exhibition Committee's request to lay railway siding through Park. Christchurch City Council Archives. Domain Board Minute Book 1864 - 1906
CH 343 item 133a p439
Letter from NZ Exhibition Committee to District Engineer, Government Railways 14 November 1905. New Zealand Railways, Christchurch.
CH 142 Box 66, file 1588. Siding from Addington [Riccarton Station] to Exhibition Grounds, Christchurch
Copy of agreement between Minister of Railways and Christchurch Domains Board on Exhibition siding 1905. New Zealand Railways, Christchurch
CH 142 Box 66, file 1588. Siding from Addington [Riccarton Station] to Exhibition Grounds, Christchurch 1905-1908
Memorandum from District Engineer on opening of siding, 5 December 1905. New Zealand Railways.
CH 142 Box 66, file 1588. Siding from Addington [Riccarton Station] to Exhibition Grounds, Christchurch 1905-1908
While the 1860s proposal to route the Northern Railway from Addington Station along the inside boundary of the Park to cross the Avon near Fendaltown Bridge was vociferously opposed and defeated ( John Hall called the proposal 'barbarism'), a proposal to lay a temporary railway line through the middle of Hagley Park to facilitate the New Zealand Exhibition of 1906 was approved by the Domains Board. The siding left Riccarton Station and crossed North Hagley Park through the golf course to the main exhibition site, which extended from near Victoria Lake to Carlton Mill corner and up to opposite Helmore's Lane Bridge. The Exhibition buildings covered 14 acres and contained several of the latest locomotives and carriages. The siding was used not only to move these trains to the site but to allow the construction of the buildings and exhibits themselves. The track was pulled up in 1908, and the area replanted.
