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QR History

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Beginnings

In July 1865 the first section of railway line in Queensland was opened, with a great fanfare of publicity, to traffic from Ipswich to Bigges Camp, a distance of twenty-one miles (thirty-five kilometres). Bigges Camp (now known as Grandchester), marked the end of the comparatively easy first stretch of line. The major construction work consisted of the combined road and rail bridge across the Bremer river to North Ipswich.

In April of 1866, the second section of the Southern and Western railway running from Ipswich westwards to Toowoomba opened. Section Two covered the extension from Bigges Camp across the Little Liverpool Range to Laidley. The ascent of the Little Liverpool Range from Bigges Camp to Laidley was a much more difficult project than Section One.

The Little Liverpool Range and the Main Range to Toowoomba had dictated the choice of a narrow gauge for Queensland’s first main line. By using a narrow gauge instead of a broader gauge as in use in the Southern Australian colonies, savings on construction costs could be achieved. The negative side of such a decision was that a narrow gauge also meant smaller locomotives and rollingstock, lighter bridges, and sharper curves on ascending ranges. It also meant that a slower speed would have to be accepted.

The above explanation of the development of the first railway in Queensland shows why the Queensland rail system has developed in its own individual manner. It is a story of a railway required to develop vast areas of the state, moving passengers and goods over long distances with economy first and foremost in the minds of its planners. However, throughout the 1980’s and especially during the decade of the 1990’s, the railway landscape of Queensland has changed in many cases beyond recognition.

In Australia, railway construction was modelled on the lines of railway construction in Great Britain. An imported English railway, but on a smaller scale. Apart from the early station buildings imported from England, everything about Queensland Railways was scaled down, not just the track formation.

The rails were lighter, the rolling stock smaller, the axle loads much less, the bridges much lighter and supported on timber piers, or even purely built of timber.

Economy was uppermost in its conception. The Queensland Railways ethos was to seek economy in the pursuit of distance. As a government owned enterprise it was a railway to satisfy constituents, as well as the transport needs of the colony.