What's the oldest public building in the northern Illawarra township of Thirroul?

You're looking at it. This wooden waiting room was built on what are now Thirroul platforms 2 and 3 in 1887. Back then the Sundance Kid was only 20 years old.

It has termite infestation, wet rot and dry rot, which is no surprise to those who even casually glance at it. In short, it's stuffed. As is the Sundance Kid, I'm led to believe.

The railways department (I've given up trying to follow the weekly name changes, so I'll just call them that) wanted to rip the thing down and replace it with a brick and steel building with an open awning. A local citizen's committee called the Thirroul Village Committee went to town on the application to redevelop and in November 2013 obtained a ruling from the NSW Heritage Council that the building should stand. Apparently some of the argument revolved around the cost of repair vs the cost of rebuilding.

I have no firm opinion on this, not least because I haven't seen the numbers relating to restoration vs rebuilding. Yes, the building has seen a lot of history pass, but if that was the sole criterion we could never redevelop a single property. It would be different if there was something unique or meaningful or even beautiful about its architecture, but for my own to the extent that I notice the thing at all I only ever notice the structural damage. (Except, of course, for this image where I was drawn to the light within the waiting room vs the colour of the building, but not everyone sees the thing at 05:00.) And in terms of practicality... it has no toilets. Those are over on the other platform only.

I do hope that it really can be repaired, restored and maintained at less than the cost of a new building. In such a case I'd happily see it stay. But to be honest I have my doubts that that's the case because the structural damage around the rest of the building is vastly more prominent than you see here.