At around midnight last night, a fire started which engulfed the old Mullumbimby railway station. It’s been twenty years since the last train came through, but the building has been an important community hub, providing office space for a number of organisations, including COREM, Mullum Music Festival and Social Futures.
Shane Rennie of Island Quarry and Flickerfest is a long term tenant of the station who is devastated by the news. He told the Echo he saw the fire start on his security cameras and notified the fire brigade immediately, but the building was well alight by the time the fire brigade arrived ten minutes later.
Police Inspector Matt Kehoe has confirmed that the station building has been severely damaged, saying the walls of the building look externally okay, but the internal structure and roof have been totally destroyed.
He said the cause ‘appears to be an electrical fault, not considered suspicious.’
Police are still on scene processing the site this morning.
Mr Rennie said many important archives had been lost relating to Island Quarry, while he hoped digital backups would have preserved most of the Flickerfest material.
As well as the immediate loss to tenants, Mr Rennie said the loss to the community would hit hard, with the station building having been ‘brought back from the brink’ ten years ago. ‘It’s a damned tragedy,’ he said.
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