Central railway station, Brisbane

So, I'm at Central railway station here in Brisbane, right in the northern part of the central business district. It's a pretty busy spot, the main station on the City network, and one of four inner-city stations that form a core corridor through Brisbane.

Looking around, you can tell this place has a lot of history. The very first building, back in 1889, was apparently a wooden structure with corrugated iron, opening as the terminus when the line was extended from Roma Street. Then, just a couple of years later in 1891, a tunnel opened up to Brunswick Street station, which is now Fortitude Valley, so trains could head north directly from here.

They built a much more elegant station in 1899, with these cool arches made of corrugated iron over the platforms and a portico on Ann Street. And check this out – the entrance with the distinctive row of clocks, built in 1901, used sandstone from local quarries. Pretty neat. For a while, in 1904, Central actually had the only electro-pneumatic system in Australia for changing points and signals.

It's been through a lot of changes over the years. In the 1940s, there was even an incident where an American soldier was arrested here after stabbing a Brisbane woman and some Australian soldiers. The Ann Street portico was demolished in 1954 when they widened the street, and the vaulted roof was replaced with awnings in 1966. Between 1968 and 1970, they redeveloped it, building office towers over the platforms and a modern pedestrian concourse. The 1901 entrance buildings were actually torn down then. Later, in 1984, the Sheraton Hotel Towers, now the Sofitel, went up over the remaining platforms. More recently, in 1996, Platforms 5 and 6 opened, and there was a major upgrade that started in early 2017.

You can get in from a few places: the main entrance at Ann and Edward Streets, a pedestrian subway from Anzac Square to Upper Edward Street, and from Ann and Creek Streets. There are also some less used access points off Wickham Terrace and through the Railway Centre courtyard. If you need a lift, there's one on Ann Street opposite the Shrine of Remembrance and another on Wickham Terrace. And escalators from Anzac Square Arcade too. All the suburban and interurban City network lines stop here.