HISTORY of ATHERTON-HERBERTON RAILWAY
THE OLD. During the 1882 wet season, desperate tin miners on the Wild River were unable to obtain supplies and were on the verge of famine. The boggy road leading to Port Douglas was proving impassable, meaning no tin went to port and no supplies came back to Herberton. As a result, miners were raising angry voices and began agitating for a railway to the coast. With coming general elections and the cold weather in the south meant that many leading politicians were heading north, all promising a railway, so in March 1882, the Minister for Works and Mines Macrossan announced the search for a route from the Atherton Tablelands to the coast.
Christie Palmerston had been commissioned to find a suitable route for a railway to the coast and during 1882 marked several routes to Port Douglas, Cairns, Mourilyan and Cardwell.
In November 1882 Palmerston took 9 days to trek to Mourilyan and this seemed to be the chosen route and surveyor Monk submitted reports to the government in March 1884. The Barron Valley route was finally chosen and this would shape the future of North Queensland, along with surveyor Amos, plans were draw up & submitted to the government in February 1885. These plans were subsequently approved by cabinet on the 19th September 1885.
Construction commenced on 10th May 1886, with then Premier Samuel Griffiths turning the first sod. The line was now headed towards Herberton but there were many twists and turns on the way, contracts terminated as this engineering feat took its toll on the contractors, until 1887 when a contractor by the name of John Robb took control and with his crew with only picks, shovels, dynamite and strength started to make progress. The rail line from Cairns to Kuranda was now completed and officially opened on 15th June 1891.
Work immediately started on the Kuranda to Mareeba section with this section being officially opened in 1883, just a short deviation from the intended Herberton line. Again, work proceeded towards Herberton at last with the easy work in front of the construction crew until the got to the bottom of the Herberton Range, where hard rock and deep fill areas were required. Many drains had to be constructed along the way but the rock cuttings using only hand tools slowed progress to a crawl. With all of this work completed, a grand opening was held at the Herberton Station on 20th October 1910, with the workers travelling to Wondecla for a picnic and the official party walking up to the Herberton Town Hall for a more fancy gathering.
THE NEW With the steady decline in tin prices & general freight, it was easy to see that the government railway had arrived a little too late to take full advantage of the freight volumes of previous years. After spending large amounts of money in track upgrading, station painting & general maintenance, the surprise announcement came that on the 1st January 1989 that all passenger rail services on the Tablelands would cease. Freight would be delivered by road to existing unmanned stations, much to the surprise of all Tablelanders. The transport Minister blamed the situation on excessive running costs and the railway could not continue to run at a serious financial loss, with the final seal of fate being the announcement on the 9th September 1990 the line would be officially closed. Then along came a group of energetic volunteers with the vision of creating a tourist rail journey between Atherton & Ravenshoe. Then after a lot of planning, their hopes were dashed when the rail bridge at Wondecla was to be removed to allow larger coaches to travel between Herberton & Ravenshoe, all that had to be done would have been to raise the bridge 500mm & the coaches would have been able to pass under the bridge & allow the rail plans to continue, but what government makes a sensible decision to help a small community. So with the railway line divided in two, so did the tourist railway group start to become divided. The group at Atherton worked tirelessly & with the support of the local business community started to restore steam locomotive C17, No812. Along with track upgrades they had a big job in front of them & finally got up & running, a great achievement. Unfortunately in year 2000, the group abandoned all the work they had done mainly due to internal pressures & the line lay dormant once again.
Then in 2003, along came what we now know as Atherton-Herberton Historic Railway Inc. who took on the challenge of once again establishing a tourist railway experience between Atherton & Herberton. The present group have been granted Rail Transport Operators Accreditation & have a business plan that should see this achieved over the next 10 years. To date, the track has been upgraded to allow a passenger carrying service to run every Sunday between Herberton Station & Herberton Historic Village with track upgrading now completed another 500 m past the village heading towards Carrington Falls.
THE OLD. During the 1882 wet season, desperate tin miners on the Wild River were unable to obtain supplies and were on the verge of famine. The boggy road leading to Port Douglas was proving impassable, meaning no tin went to port and no supplies came back to Herberton. As a result, miners were raising angry voices and began agitating for a railway to the coast. With coming general elections and the cold weather in the south meant that many leading politicians were heading north, all promising a railway, so in March 1882, the Minister for Works and Mines Macrossan announced the search for a route from the Atherton Tablelands to the coast.
Christie Palmerston had been commissioned to find a suitable route for a railway to the coast and during 1882 marked several routes to Port Douglas, Cairns, Mourilyan and Cardwell.
In November 1882 Palmerston took 9 days to trek to Mourilyan and this seemed to be the chosen route and surveyor Monk submitted reports to the government in March 1884. The Barron Valley route was finally chosen and this would shape the future of North Queensland, along with surveyor Amos, plans were draw up & submitted to the government in February 1885. These plans were subsequently approved by cabinet on the 19th September 1885.
Construction commenced on 10th May 1886, with then Premier Samuel Griffiths turning the first sod. The line was now headed towards Herberton but there were many twists and turns on the way, contracts terminated as this engineering feat took its toll on the contractors, until 1887 when a contractor by the name of John Robb took control and with his crew with only picks, shovels, dynamite and strength started to make progress. The rail line from Cairns to Kuranda was now completed and officially opened on 15th June 1891.
Work immediately started on the Kuranda to Mareeba section with this section being officially opened in 1883, just a short deviation from the intended Herberton line. Again, work proceeded towards Herberton at last with the easy work in front of the construction crew until the got to the bottom of the Herberton Range, where hard rock and deep fill areas were required. Many drains had to be constructed along the way but the rock cuttings using only hand tools slowed progress to a crawl. With all of this work completed, a grand opening was held at the Herberton Station on 20th October 1910, with the workers travelling to Wondecla for a picnic and the official party walking up to the Herberton Town Hall for a more fancy gathering.
THE NEW With the steady decline in tin prices & general freight, it was easy to see that the government railway had arrived a little too late to take full advantage of the freight volumes of previous years. After spending large amounts of money in track upgrading, station painting & general maintenance, the surprise announcement came that on the 1st January 1989 that all passenger rail services on the Tablelands would cease. Freight would be delivered by road to existing unmanned stations, much to the surprise of all Tablelanders. The transport Minister blamed the situation on excessive running costs and the railway could not continue to run at a serious financial loss, with the final seal of fate being the announcement on the 9th September 1990 the line would be officially closed. Then along came a group of energetic volunteers with the vision of creating a tourist rail journey between Atherton & Ravenshoe. Then after a lot of planning, their hopes were dashed when the rail bridge at Wondecla was to be removed to allow larger coaches to travel between Herberton & Ravenshoe, all that had to be done would have been to raise the bridge 500mm & the coaches would have been able to pass under the bridge & allow the rail plans to continue, but what government makes a sensible decision to help a small community. So with the railway line divided in two, so did the tourist railway group start to become divided. The group at Atherton worked tirelessly & with the support of the local business community started to restore steam locomotive C17, No812. Along with track upgrades they had a big job in front of them & finally got up & running, a great achievement. Unfortunately in year 2000, the group abandoned all the work they had done mainly due to internal pressures & the line lay dormant once again.
Then in 2003, along came what we now know as Atherton-Herberton Historic Railway Inc. who took on the challenge of once again establishing a tourist railway experience between Atherton & Herberton. The present group have been granted Rail Transport Operators Accreditation & have a business plan that should see this achieved over the next 10 years. To date, the track has been upgraded to allow a passenger carrying service to run every Sunday between Herberton Station & Herberton Historic Village with track upgrading now completed another 500 m past the village heading towards Carrington Falls.
