Episode description
In the 2nd half of our two-part special, we’re going to cover the completion of the Kuranda Scenic Railway (KSR). If you haven’t listened to part 1 yet, please make sure you start there first. We’ll explore some of its famous landmarks that can be seen along the journey. We’ll discover what happened to the line when war broke out and why it’s still such a popular tourist destination in Far North Queensland today.
We’ll chat with our Driver in Charge of the Cairns region, with over 25 years of experience driving on the Kuranda range and a Business Associate from our Travel & Tourism team, who began her career at Queensland Rail working as a service attendant onboard the KSR.
Construction of the Cairns to Kuranda Railway was an engineering feat of tremendous magnitude. This enthralling chapter in the history of North Queensland stands as testimony to the splendid ambitions, fortitude and suffering of the hundreds of men engaged in its construction. It also stands as a monument to the many men who lost their lives on this amazing project.
Rising from sea level to 327m, the journey to Kuranda passes through flat farm fields outside of Cairns, heading up through a dense world heritage listed rainforest, winding through man-made tunnels, over the Barron Gorge, and over towering bridges, passing spectacular waterfalls along the way.
To book a ticket onboard the KSR, please visit the
Queensland Rail Travel website.
Listen to the episode
Podcast transcript
Introduction
Annette: Hi, I'm Annette and welcome to the Queensland Rail History Podcast. Our podcast is all about discovering the story of the railways across our state and how they evolved, and the hard-working people who created them. I'm so glad you've joined us again for Part 2 of our Kuranda Scenic Railway episode. If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, please stop now and head back there first. Our historian, Greg Hallam, explains why the Cairns to Kuranda route was chosen and describes the struggles of its construction back in the late 1800s.
Greg: There's no ways to change it. It was described as treacherous. The navvies tackled the jungle and mountains with strategy, fortitude, hand tools, dynamite, buckets and bare hands.
Annette: In this episode, we're going to look at some of the Kuranda Line's famous landmarks:
“As it's called, it's a scenic railway and pretty much is from the get-go."
“When you come around the corner of the mountain, you look out and you can see right out to Green Island. You can see all of Cairns, the bay and everything. And it's just so breathtaking and it's just a different view every day."
We'll chat to somebody who used to work as a service attendant on the KSR:
“I think I'm probably a little bit rusty."
That's okay.
“Definitely back in the day, I think I was a lot better, absolutely."
And we'll discover what happened to the Kuranda Railway when war broke out:
“Second World War breaks out, that's it. No more tourist services."
“Be that as it may, we, in common with the whole community, hail with pleasure the inauguration of the railway in Queensland."
“An old woman in our carriage was very proud of this little bit of railroad."
Now, let's rejoin the conversation with Greg and find out why section two of the Kuranda Railway's construction was its most challenging part to build.
Construction of the second section
Greg: The plant, the tool, the explosives, everything, culverts, earthworks, cement, sand for culverts, they came up on mules.
Annette: Did they not use the train line that was already established? So, they've done the first 10 miles. Did it come up the first 10 miles by train and then jump onto a mule?
Greg: Well, they bring up – you bring up the – basically to the railhead as they called it. So you bring your construction material. But if you're pushing that line further up the Barron Gorge into the works that are being undertaken and that, you can only go so far. When you see the right of way, as they called it – the rail corridor in this day and age – it's pretty narrow. So, for the workers to get up there and also to bring the material up, again, you've only got a railway that's open to so far, with the railway works and that. So to go beyond that point, and that's why they use mules. Mules actually were deemed to be more serviceable than horses. They used to bring wagons up along the permanent way, as they called it. And as I said, they got to the limit of the construction works and then sand actually was taken from the Barron Gorge.
It was bagged, it was packed on to the mules and then it was brought along the ledges that were actually cut into the mountainside for various jobs. So, although you've got the line being built, like the right of way, it's being constructed, the permanent way, then you've got into the hillside, you've got all these other tracks that have been cut in as well by the navvies, by the workers, so that they could forward the material to the bridges, to the tunnel works and things like that. To me, when I hear about the accounts and read it, it's almost like an ant farm. You could just see – it's like this great big ant farm, this hive of activity. It's going ahead and pushing its way forward, just this constant hive of activity that went with it. Bridge work was a big thing. Iron and steel to get across the gullies and then to get that lined up on the hillsides and the mountainside.
Stoney Creek Bridge
There were two lengths of steel required to complete the bridge work. That was around 260 metres. There was 290 tonnes of steel that went into the bridge work. And it was actually built – that was actually manufactured locally by Walkers Limited of Maryborough. And that was about 7,850 pound. And the most iconic bridge when you go up there, that I think has probably been referred to as the most photographed railway bridge in Australia and definitely in Queensland, they're probably the best known because you see the photographs going back to the 1890s; it's the Stoney Creek Falls. And it's probably the best known and photographed engineering structure on the line. It's an icon shot. And it's built on a four-chain radius curve.
Four-chain curves were the tightest radii curvature that was used on the Queensland Railway system. Four chains was a curve with a radius of about 266 feet. And it was used to negotiate tight curves. And coming up the Toowoomba Range and that they had – I think it was five or six-chain curves. But if you want to go – basically if you're trying to save on costs, you're trying to ascend to a higher point on the railway construction. In Queensland, it was Robert Ballard, I think, actually. He pushed the idea, you go for a four chain, which is even a very tight chain radius curve. You know it, because you hear the wheels squeal when carriages and that go around on a very tight curve; you hear the squeal of the bogeys and things like that. I think it was the Mapleton Tramway when that line was around, had two-chain curves or something.
The old joke used to be in Queensland, basically, if the fireman or the driver leant out far enough and the guard did, they could shake hands. But that's a bit of an old hoary tale anyway, that they used to use to describe the tight curves on the Queensland Railways. Needless to say, it does limit your speed, and it was basically a response to the cost and also to the engineering work that had to go on there, Annette.
Shaun: “When you go up round places like Stoney Creek and you look back and you watch the train going round the tight curve and you see Stoney Creek falls behind, it looks absolutely magnificent."
Annette: This is Shaun Wroblewski, Driver in Charge in the Cairns region and someone who's been driving trains up the Kuranda Range since 1995. Shaun knows the Stoney Creek Bridge well.
Shaun: “When we go round Stoney Creek Bridge, we slow down to 5 k an hour, so everyone gets a good, solid shot or video of the train on one side. Then you run across the other side, you can video the falls. So, yes, it's good, all these viewpoints all the way up. There's quite a few of them, and we teach the drivers to slow down for all them so everyone gets their top dollar for their ride. On the line itself from Redlynch to Kuranda, it's Heritage. So, we've got a lot of timber bridges there, so we can't replace them with concrete or steel or metal of any description. And by law now, we've got to replace them, because they're Heritage. So, it's a good thing. We're keeping something from the past."
Annette: Shaun's family have been working in the railway since the early 1900s, and someone who's recently joined him on the Kuranda Range is his son, who is now working at Queensland Rail as a bridge worker.
Shaun: I never thought any of my sons would join Queensland Rail. Like I said, I've been in the railway 48 years, and 37 years of that, I've worked really hard shift work, and they used to see me coming home cranky some days because of lack of sleep and stuff like that. But the third boy wanted to get back to home, Cairns, and he applied for a job, and he got a job on the bridge gang, which mostly works on the Kuranda Range. So, he loves it up there because it's open, it's beautiful. He said it's so picturesque. He says, “What a way to get paid; you're just doing a job, and it's fantastic." It's a good thing. I don't dwell on it; it's just a natural progression in life. I've never ever pushed any of my sons to be Queensland Rail. It's just that it's been my life. I'm 63 years old. I joined at 15. Nearly 80% of my life has been railways.
Greg: In April of 1890, Stoney Creek Bridge was almost complete and the project was actually paid a Viceregal visit. The Governor of Queensland, who was Henry Wylie Norman – Norman Creek, down in Brisbane, I think that's him. Normanby, where the pub is, just up from Roma Street, Normanby Hotel, Normanby, Norman. I even think Norman Park on the south side. I'd have to confirm that one. They're all – they've got all their named association with him. So, he actually visited the railway works because it was big news; it was major works; it attracted even then, the construction work, almost its own in a way tourism industry.
So Henry Norman, he comes up the range; he comes to the Stoney Creek Bridge with Stoney Creek falls in the background, and there's a full banquet under a tent that's basically set up to welcome the Governor of Queensland. So there's tables, there's food, there's wine and you're basically – you've got the gorge there, so you've got the Stoney Creek falls, you've got that thundering in the background, you've got the Barron Falls there and he's actually brought to this wonderful banquet that was set up for him and that was for his inspection. So, it would have come as a big surprise. I think one of the things, mercifully though, is in that era when they ever had any official event, there were speeches and they just used to go on; they were incredibly long-winded and that, lots of toasts been drunk. Apparently, because of the noise of the Stoney Creek falls thundering in the background, they had no speeches. So it was a case of eat, drink and be merry, basically.
Annette: I wonder if Robb did that on purpose.
The tunnels
Greg: Well, I think if so, good on him. But I actually think, in all honesty too, Annette, I really think it was done also deliberately, to show the work that was involved, the magnitude of the task at hand; but also, it was such a spectacular location, when you're at Stoney Creek falls, to have the line there. So it's a lot of marketing, a lot of showmanship involved, of course anyway. The longest tunnel up there is number 15. It was also the most difficult of the tunnel jobs on the range. As we said, the slope of the ground is 45 degrees. It's got this disjointed layer of decomposed soil, decomposed vegetation. It's treacherous. And that varied from five to eight metres before they could get down to natural rock and that. So you had the usual danger from the extensive use of explosives in the tunnels. You had the cuttings, as we mentioned before. And then that's increased, Annette, by the unstable nature of the rock, and you've got this great drop down the side of the gorge. You've got a couple of hundred metres and you've got a very large drop off to the side as well. So it's all about – it's really a way of – it's balance and you've got all this major engineering work that you're trying to undertake in a very treacherous condition. So that was tunnel 15.
Annette: Did they name the tunnels, or are they just literally tunnel one through to 15?
Greg: Oh, come on, Annette. You know as well as I do, the railway is a very practical environment and it was just tunnel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You've got the named tunnel down in between Laidley and Grandchester, which is the Victoria Tunnel, constructed 1865, 1866. The Victoria Tunnel named after Her Majesty Queen Victoria, in honour of her. But once you start coming up Toowoomba Range, it's the nine tunnels, tunnel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You've got the tunnels going up to Kuranda. If you're building a contract, on contract, you talk about forwarding things or the costs in tunnel such and such, which is number 1 or 2. And even to this day and age, it's still the same thing, tunnel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And, of course, the great thing is they always painted the number on the tunnels. So you know when you're coming through them as well.
The original survey plans actually ran around the outside of the hill, where it was proposed to build an iron bridge and two short tunnels. But because the ground was so difficult in that area, they decided to put the whole of that part of the line into one tunnel. So they did away with the idea of a bridge and two short tunnels and just did one longer tunnel. The idea was by the 26th of July 1888, they hoped to have section two completed. That didn't happen, and the completion date and the costs were greatly exceeded.
Completion
The line did prove to be well built and that was probably a tribute to Willoughby Hannam. He had to survey so many deviations. Even with the original survey, they're including more and more deviations because they're seeing what was surveyed, and what they were prepared for. When they get to the actual building, this is not quite what we expected, or the difficulties were being presented, like tunnel 15 as we mentioned there before. So they had to – Willoughby Hannam, he had to put in deviations to original survey plans, and they had to literally change and make adjustments as they went; they had to adapt as they went along. The original route that they actually wanted to go up that range, ultimately, as John Kerr in his book, Triumph of Narrow Gauge, said, it really was impossible to construct. But they managed to get that line open believe it or not. It opened to Myola on the 15th of June of 1891 which is – what's that –130 years ago and two months ago almost, from today, and it opened for goods traffic only.
Then, 10 days later the Cairns to Kuranda Railway was actually officially opened to passenger travel. It was that stage at Kuranda – in this day and age we see it as the most important station on the section. It became a tourist location for its proximity to the Barron Falls. In that initial timetable it provided for two trains per day, they allowed about an hour and a quarter, 75 minutes for the journey; and even with all the sharp curves and I think that proved too much of a challenge. So they actually brought out a timetable in August – that's 130 years ago now – and every timetable the range climb is for 90 minutes; so for an extra 15 minutes, solely on account they realised that what was originally intended and what they timetabled for, they had to be a bit more realistic with the timing. So it became the 90-minute journey that's so well known today. The railway line opened from Cairns, it opened to Kuranda, to the final section at Myola.
Port Douglas, the trade through there and movement of traffic and everything through Port Douglas, it died off and it died off rapidly, and the town actually became a very quiet little retreat. My step-grandfather used to be in the Harbours and Marines and he was a dredge captain in there, ship's master. He always loved Port Douglas, he always called it Sleepy Hollow when he used to go up there in the 1930s and 40s and that. It's different today, of course, it's a very popular holiday destination as we know. Geraldton – that's an Irish name – Geraldton became Innisfail – Innisfail, Irish. It became its own prosperous township of course, and that was because the sugar industry took off in that part of the world. And then the reliable supply of goods and traffic, Tablelands actually – well, it also took up with grazing land. Cairns was actually, it became the modern international tourist centre that it is today and it was really that railway that brought the tourism to it.
Ivana Andacic
Ivana: “I've been working for Queensland Rail since around 1994."
Annette: That's Ivana Andacic. Ivana's been working behind the scenes on our travel and tourism team for over 27 years. Currently a Business Development Associate, working with a team along the east coast of Queensland, boosting growth in the tourism of Queensland rail travel. Ivana knows the Kuranda line quite well and even worked as a guest service attendant on the KSR for five years.
Ivana: Absolutely, that is what I used to do, so that was good fun back in those days. Now it's pre-recorded, but back then it was definitely live readings.
Annette: Oh, can you remember some of the lines? Could you give us some of the lines you used to say as you were going along?
Ivana: The Cairns to Kuranda railway line is considered one of the nation's greatest engineering feats, and is today recognised as a national engineering landmark. The two sections were completed in June 1891, taking five years and costing just over one million pounds.
I think I'm probably a little bit rusty.
Annette: That's okay.
Ivana: Definitely back in the day I think I was a lot better, absolutely.
Annette: Can you tell me about the significance of the paintings on our trains?
Ivana: Kuranda Scenic Railway locomotives has an amazing story painted on there, and the story is about Buda-dji. Buda-dji is the rainbow serpent that carved the Barron Gorge, and of course that's the area that Kuranda Scenic Railway travels through. This story stems from our local First Nation people called Djabugay. They lived, and still do, in this area around Kuranda, including the Barron Falls and up to the Morao River.
Annette: What's been your highlight working on the KSR?
Ivana: There is too many to choose from, Annette, there really, really is. But I guess for me, the most – the highlights along the way have been all our significant milestones. For example, Kuranda Scenic Railway celebrated its 130th anniversary this year on the 25th of June, and to me that's just, wow! This tourism product's been operating for that long in this small city of Cairns; and pretty much Cairns city as we know it wouldn't be, if this railway didn't actually commence. So yes, I love those highlights, where we meet these significant milestones and here we still are. It's fantastic.
Kuranda station
Greg: 1891, Kuranda, it's the most important station on this section. It's a tourist destination. A highlight for still so many people is that climb up the Barron Gorge to Kuranda. And tourism, it was early in the piece – and this is remarkable – even when they're constructing the line, there's that – the tourism element's so strong there. It had its foundations in the early part of the 20th century. It was promoted as being – for coastal steamship companies, Queensland Railways always promoted it as a holiday destination. Cairns, tropical wonderland; Kuranda, the village in the rainforest and that. Interestingly enough, in 1913, as a result of what was termed a rapid increase in tourist traffic to the Barron Falls, plans were prepared for what was termed four up-to-date observation carriages, and it was actually hoped to have these carriages ready for the 1940 tourist season.
But the outbreak of the Great War, saw an end to this project. But Queensland Railways, we're talking 110 years ago, they realised the value of this line purely from tourism, and they're talking about special dedicated carriages for the Edwardian travellers who'd be travelling up the range, to go up and see the wonders of the range and the Barron Falls and everything like that.
KSR's carriages
Annette: Greg, I was just wondering, how old are the carriages that we use today to go on the KSR?
Greg: It depends which carriage you're travelling in. Some of them are called the KSR cars, which is – I think it's got the old side corridor and it's about five across, four across seating. Davidson cars, they were called, or South Western excursion cars, they're Davidson. I think they date from about the period of 1909 to about 1911. There's other carriages there that were converted from what they call the sunshine cars, which came in the mid-1930s. It was a special dedicated tourist train that ran from Brisbane to Cairns. And the Sunshine Express came in about 1935, '36. So it depends, it literally depends what carriage you're travelling in. So, some of the carriages, it could be dating to the early part of the 20th century; others probably around 1930s. It's all like Murphy's axe. They've been rebuilt, they've been rebuilt, they've been rebuilt. And what you see today doesn't always – it's not a fair indication of how they were when they first came into service.
I do know for the Centenary back in 1991, the Queensland Railways had 100 days of steam up there. They had two steam locomotives. One of them was the A10 steam locomotive, which is part of QR's fleet and it's on display at the Workshops Rail Museum, built in 1865. It actually went up the range with PB15 732. They actually used some of the oldest carriages they could find, and if memory serves me correct, at that stage they go back to very early 20th century. So there was a wonderful connection. But it was quite a menagerie of carriages that they used to use on the Cairns Railway. And it was pretty much – it was described to me by many years ago by an engine driver up there as very much a hand-me-down railway at times; some of the rolling stock that they had up there in Cairns. But no, that was it.
And yes, they were going to have special dedicated carriages for tourism. The Great War, the First World War breaks out in 1914 and then it's continued to grow. And actually the present station at Kuranda, constructed in concrete, it was actually built in 1915 because the original station was much more humbler than the current one. But again, they built a new station out there of concrete and that was in recognition of the – well, basically the importance of Kuranda. It was very, very popular with the trains and that. So they built an entire new station there out of concrete.
Ivana: Kuranda station itself, it's a Heritage listed station. It's over 100 years old. It's very, very, very charming.
Kuranda station
Annette: Ivana explains the beauty that is the Kuranda station.
Ivana: There's a lot of beautiful gardens and back in its day, used to win a lot of gardening competitions. We do have a tea room there as well. Once you finish having a look around Kuranda Station, you can go to Kuranda Village. This village in the rainforest is very small, very quaint and very famous for its markets. The two original ones is the original markets and the heritage markets. They specialise in a lot of local arts and crafts and jewellery and food items from the region. There's also many wildlife attractions up there as well. So you can cuddle a koala, pat a wombat or get amongst it in the butterfly aviary and see some local Ulysses butterflies, that kind of a thing. There's also many cafés up there as well and ice creameries. So yes, it's a really good day out. It's a good opportunity to spend a good two, three hours up in the village.
Kuranda tourist train
Greg: I think in the tourist season in 1933, the special Kuranda tourist train, it ran on a Thursday and a Friday; so two days a week. That was the tourist train, as they call it. The train left from Cairns Wharf at about 9:00 am, got to Cairns at 9:20, got to Kuranda at 11:30. The Friday departures were from Cairns at 9:40am; they got to Kuranda at 11:30. And a first class single fare cost you four shillings and one pence from Cairns Wharf.
Annette: Okay, so pre-World War I, we were running six days a week. Post-World War I, by 1933, we were only running two days a week.
Greg: Now, what it is, there was the special tourist service that they had anyway. So, previous to that, they'd be running trains, you know, normal timetabled services and that. I think in 1914 was when they were looking at the normal timetabled services and that and the trains, but they're starting to realise they could be a dedicated tourist service. And as I said, 1933 was the interesting one, when you have a look at it. It left from Cairns Wharf, which I thought was very good.
Cairns Wharf station
Annette: Does the Cairns Wharf station still exist today?
Greg: Oh, good question again, Annette. It doesn't, unfortunately, no. But the idea was, thinking about – you could take the train from Trinity Inlet up to Barron Gorge. The tourist train used to tie in with the passenger ships that used to come in, like the mail steamers and that. And so people could actually, if they were getting off, they could take the train from the Cairns Wharf. Again, there was that tourist opportunity as well. Go up the range there, while the ship was berthed, and come back down again. So I think the good thing is, maybe with tourism and that, we seem to be thinking it's a much more modern invention. But you're going back to the early part of the 20th century. There was that concept of the railway being an important part of the tourist industry that was tied in.
In the mid-1930s, they introduced what they called the Grandstand train. There are photographs of that in the Queensland Rail Archives. It was a really interesting concept. I think a couple of the carriages still survive today, but not in that configuration of Grandstand. And literally, there are three or four carriages that have been converted at Ipswich Railway workshops. There were two tiers of seats built into the carriage. They were raised tiers of seats, one behind the other, as if you're in an auditorium. And then on the right-hand side of the carriage, which when you went up the range, faces out over the Baron Gorge or back towards Cairns. There's a great big lot of glass panels. And they called it the Grandstand train for the simple reason you had these two – these raised tiers of seats in the carriage; you had these glass panels, and you literally sit there, and watch it unfold.
They even had a hostess on board, and I think they had a microphone and a public announcement system. And she'd actually commentate on the way up the range. Again, that was in the 1930s. So, it was all that tourist thing that went with it. And that lasted until the Second World War. Second World War breaks out, that's it; no more tourist services. The tourist services are cancelled. Carriages are converted for use for ambulance trains and things like that. And that's it. With the beginning of the outbreak of the Second World War, there's no more tourist services, and they don't recommence until after the war.
The Atherton Project
I mentioned before the carriages – well, they were transformed. Some became ambulance carriages that were part of the Australian ambulance trains that ran in Queensland. And it's actually 1942, that was when the military story really begins there. General Blamey, he ordered a survey of the Atherton Tableland, and what they intended to do was develop facilities for rehabilitation and training area for Australian troops, who had come back from the Mideast. It was known as the Atherton Project. There were three key purposes: to recuperate troops in a cooler climate while engaged in jungle warfare training.
Annette: I have to laugh at the cooler climate thing there, Greg. Have they not been to the Australian tropics?
Greg: Well, that's true. But when you think that a lot of them had come back from the Mideast and fighting in North Africa, I think it was – when you go to Atherton and those areas up around the 1,000 metre, it's a much cooler climate, especially if you've been fighting in other parts of the world, in the middle of the North African desert and places like that. So that was it. Three key purposes: recuperate troops in a cooler climate; provide suitable hospitalisation for malaria and tropical cases, the ones who are coming down from New Guinea at that stage; and it was also basically, be close to the front line in New Guinea. So it was a major staging area with access to railway and port facilities. There was an army general hospital built near Atherton called Rocky Creek. And if memory serves me correct, it was the largest military hospital that was built in North Queensland during the Second World War.
Post WWII tourism industry
It was actually after the Second World War that the tourist industry came back again. In 1963, the first of what you were alluding to before Annette, which is the regular all-year tourist services, it actually formally was placed in the Queensland Railways country timetable. The tourist service was provided by one of the then modern 2000 class rail motors that they called the Silver Bullets, which were stainless steel rail motors. The service ran on Monday to Saturday. So there's your six days a week. Left Cairns at 9:00 am; got to Kuranda at 10:22. Then your return service left Kuranda 11 to 10:00, and it got back to Cairns at 12:30. So up and down in the morning, basically.
Annette: So they've extended – sorry – so they've reduced back down from their 90 minute timetable. Because it would take them 90 minutes for the curve. so now it's come back down.
Greg: And also steam locomotives you would have been dealing with too, Annette. So, stopping for water perhaps on the way. And also the Silver Bullet rail motors, they're smaller, they were faster, bigger engine. When they came in, I think they had Rolls Royce engines in them, diesels. And so they actually had more get-up-and-go. And I think they were a lot more comfortable too, even though with open windows and that. When you've got a B15 or a PB15 class steam locomotive going through 15 tunnels and working hard up the range and up the gorge, I think it would be a much more pleasurable experience travelling in the Silver Bullet. And speaking of which, with the steam locomotives, the diesel electric locomotives first came on Cairns-Kuranda in 1959. The train journey was so popular, there was a 100% increase in passenger numbers between 1965 and 1975. So each year it was increasing 10% with tourism.
Ivana: “The reason why people come to Cairns is because of the two World Heritage Listed sites."
Annette: Ivana works in our travel and tourism team and explains why the KSR and Cairns itself are so unique to the rest of Australia.
Ivana: It's the only place, really, in the world where the reef meets the rainforest. So we have the Great Barrier Reef and of course the wet tropics. Kuranda Scenic Railways is very much part of the wet tropics rainforest experience. You can imagine customers that live in areas, for example, like Tokyo, where it's very built up and then to come to our region where it's all so open and green and lush and to really feel amongst nature. It's definitely a big drawcard; really, really is. And there's so much to do up here as well. It's not – of course, Kuranda Scenic Railway is an iconic must-do. But there's so many other areas to visit here too. So for example, the Daintree and the Tablelands or down south to Paronella Park. There's lots to do here. It's not a two-night stay destination; it's definitely a seven-night stay destination.
The railway continues
Greg: The railway didn't stop there, of course. It went on to Mareeba in the 1890s. It got down to Herberton in 1910. The tin boom was long over by then. However, it was used; a lot of agricultural products came down the Cairns-Kuranda line from Herberton and other places further inland. The line had opened through to Atherton in 1903. And there are other places up there as well that had its own entire railway network. There was down to Ravenshoe; there was Tumoulin, Malanda; there was a line to Malanda as well. There are other parts that were built by John Moffat's private railway company, Chillagoe Railway Mining Company. And we eventually went to places like Mount Mulligan, Chillagoe, and out to Forsayth. So, this very big, just a remarkable railway network, railway system that was the Cairns Railway. Probably the iconic part is the Cairns-Kuranda that we keep talking about. So, yes, the line got down to Tumoulin in 1911. And the line got down to Cedar Creek – another Cedar Creek in Queensland. That's called Ravenshoe. That opened in 1916.
I mentioned before there are other branch lines built from Tolga to Millaa Millaa. There's Tolga to Yungaburra and Malanda. There were further extensions in other lines, and as I said, places like Mount Mulligan and that. So there's an entire railway system that was centred on Cairns that actually tapped the Hinterland, and going out to Forsayth. Of course, today on the Savannahlander and that, you can still go out to Forsayth from Cairns. It's a four-day journey. But it takes you up basically to what became the end of the line for Cairns Railway after the Chillagoe Company was taken over by the Queensland Government. The line was taken over in 1919, I think. But anyway, that's going to be another story for another day. I think we got up the range; I think we built the line up to the Barron Gorge Annette, and well, let's go back to the community now. How's that?
Questions and answers
What year did the train close to Samford?
Annette: Thank you to everyone who has left a review, a comment or sent in a question on our social media channels. We really love hearing from you. Our first question comes from Francis Bowie, aka Bowie Boys. Francis has sent this one in from our Instagram story: what year did the train close to Samford?
Greg: Okay, Francis. That's very easily questioned. The line closed from Ferny Grove to Samford and to Dayboro. That was in July of 1955. And it wasn't because of the Camp Mountain train smash that happened in May of 1947, but the line closed some eight years later and it was purely economics. It was basically – it was about three, three and a half hour journey by train from Dayboro to Brisbane. And in the post-war period, it was very easy, actually, for farmers and people like that to buy things second-hand, trucks and that to get their produce to market. There was a very small passenger service on that line as well. So it closed in '55 and it was economics. There are a number of other lines that closed around that time. There was a railway line down from Logan Village to Canungra and a couple of other Queensland branch lines as well. And it was purely economics at that stage.
Can we get some history on the Wamuran branch line?
Annette: BettyP0709 has asked: can we get some history on the Wamuran branch line?
Greg: Well, very simply, the Wamuran branch was actually part of the old Kilcoy branch. I think the Kilcoy line closed from Wamuran through in 1964, I think it was. I actually did a presentation last year for the Moreton Bay Regional Council. This was on the history of the Kilcoy branch. And the service was withdrawn on the Wamuran branch, I think about 1993. But it's fairly well documented now, and it's actually all a bike trail and walking trail. So there's some really good signage and that. And if you're really interested in the Wamuran branch, go to the Woodford Railway Museum, which is the Australian Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Society. And they've got the old Woodford Railway Station building there that they use as part of their operating museum. They've got some very good history on the Kilcoy branch as well.
What caused the closure of the old Cleveland Central Station?
Annette: Okay. Now one that interests me is from Dishevelled Idiot: what caused the closure of the old Cleveland Central Station?
Greg: Well, the Cleveland line, which was from Lota down to Cleveland and Cleveland Central, and closed in 19 – again, off the top of my head, about 1960. The line was opened in the 1880s, but it was basically provided to allow the people of South Brisbane to get to the waters, the same way that Sandgate – Sandgate Railway was built in the 1870s, and Emu Park and other such places, basically to go to the water, get close to the water. So the line down to Cleveland went down through Wynnum Manly in those areas. And then from south of Lota, it closed, I think it was 1960. And the closure was again with economics, because again, it was a very – it was a light, incredibly lightly patronised service down there. And the line was closed in 1960, but it's actually a very far thinking Shire Council. And they retained the right of way, as they called it, or the rail corridor in this day and age. They retained the line south from Lota to the old Raby Bay Station, which is where Cleveland is today.
And in the 1980s, the population growth in southeast Queensland and the rise for public transport, especially generated by electric services, they were able – the line was reinstated. And it was from Lota to Thorneside first, then Thorneside down to what's today Cleveland. It's actually the old Raby Bay Station. The line went all the way through down to Cleveland and Cleveland Point. So again, it was economics and the line was closed in that period because it was very, very light patronage. And there wasn't much goods that came off it as well.
Conclusion
Annette: We just want to thank you for listening to today's episode. A huge thank you to our special guests. And if you're interested in travelling up to Cairns and experiencing the Kuranda Scenic Railway, head to queenslandrailtravel.com.au and book a journey. In the next episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast, we discuss the pulling together of the many patchwork threads of the railway coat to connect communities.
“The Normanton to Croydon Railway is a living example of the patchwork network that the railways started building in the 1860s. It's really stepping back into the past, but actually doing a real job in a modern era. That's what makes it unique, in my view."
Annette: If you have any questions about our rail history, please message us on the Queensland Rail Instagram or Facebook accounts. You can also email the team at
communitypartnerships@qr.com.au. We'd love to hear from you what you love about the podcast, what you'd like us to feature in the future. You've been listening to the Queensland Rail History Podcast, hosted by Greg and myself, Annette.