Thank you to everyone who came out today to help us celebrate the opening of the newly restored Cooma Railway Tennis Courts and Cooma Railway Institute Building.

We are so excited to be able to be able to bring these facilities back to life and share them with the community once again.

This restoration project was completed over the last two and a half years by our dedicated volunteers and was funded by NSW Government funds administered by Transport Heritage NSW.

A huge thank you to our amazing volunteers who work tirelessly to complete these projects. They dedicate thousands of hours every year to the preservation of our heritage and they have done a fantastic job once again.

Thank you to CMR Patron, Nichole Overall MLC who joined us today to officially open the the courts and be one of the first to hit a ball on the new courts.

Cooma Railway Courts

Opened in the 1920s for the railway workers at Cooma Railway Station, the railway courts were originally “Ant Bed” courts as the surface was constructed from ant hills or termite mounds, as was common practice in rural NSW.

The courts have been beautifully restored with a new retaining wall installed, new fencing all around, new surface, new lines and new nets. The courts will be available for hire by the community through our website.

Cooma Railway Institute Building

The Railway Institute was established in NSW to provide NSW railway employees with improved education and training. The institute later evolved into providing railway employees and their families with improved social and leisure opportunities.

Built in 1953, the Cooma Railway Institute building provided railway workers and their families in Cooma with education and training opportunities for many decades, and it’s with great please that we can once again make these facilities available to the local community.

The Railway Institute building is a small meeting or social space that is equiped with basic kitchen facilities, tables, chairs, modern audio visual system with 75-inch touch screen, video conferencing equipment and wireless internet.