General News
15 June, 2023
Ralph of the railway station
My brother, Ralph (Rudolf) Durr passed away peacefully at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on Thursday morning, May 4, 2023 aged 69. Our family had been with him most of the time since he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour on March 25 this...

My brother, Ralph (Rudolf) Durr passed away peacefully at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on Thursday morning, May 4, 2023 aged 69.
Our family had been with him most of the time since he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour on March 25 this year.
Leading up to diagnosis his short-term memory had been deteriorating this year.
At RMH we used to take him to the outdoor garden and he would tell us how he designed the garden and was meeting the architects for stage two in the afternoon.
Ralph was born in Moe on September 17, 1953 — four months after my parents had emigrated from Switzerland.
We lived mainly in Traralgon and Port Fairy (three years). Ralph had his own museum and newsletter from the age of 12.
After technical school he attended the Ballarat School of Mines (where he was friendly with ex-premier Steve Bracks) and during vacation worked in mining exploration in Tasmania and Western Australia (Kambalda — underground).
He extended his vacation and made big money as acting geologist and returned to the Ballarat area, purchasing a rundown ex-hotel in Buninyong which he restored and managed as a nursery and bric-a-brac store.
After some other ventures, at the age of 43 Ralph obtained the leasehold at the Talbot Railway Station.
He negotiated the purchase of a 15-metre railway carriage from WA which was offloaded by 60 and 15 tonne cranes.
The plan was to turn the carriage into a B&B, but it finished up as his residence.
He developed a nursery, did picture framing and bought and sold lots of “stuff”.
Ralph could not resist a bargain and hence accumulated a lot of “treasures”.
The peak of his nursery was probably around 2015 when he was interviewed by Alina Golovachenko (wonderground.press/people/interview-ralph-durr/).
Resident of Talbot, Roger Mann, summed Ralph up as living a “Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 lifestyle”, only he called his platform 2 1/2.
Ralph had the perfect filing system — put all correspondence in drawers never to be opened, but kept just in case.
Ralph did a two-day barista course and developed a coffee hang-out where many an issue was debated with vigour.
Ralph was always besotted by trains and trams. He was involved in the Walhalla Tourist Railway, a founding member of the Ballarat Tram Museum (#26 member) and Puffing Billy Society.
My family has been overwhelmed by the support of the local and neighbouring community and through a hands-on working bee were able to see daylight at the Station.
We celebrated Ralph’s life at a well-attended wake (some 50 people attending) at the Court House Hotel Talbot.
— Paul Durr, Ralph’s brother