The Cairns-to-Kuranda Railway is a heritage-listed railway line from the Cairns Region to the Shire of Mareeba, both in Queensland, Australia. It commences at Redlynch, a suburb of Cairns and travels up the Great Dividing Range to Kuranda within the Shire of Mareeba on the Atherton Tableland. It was built from 1913 to 1915 by Queensland Railways. Components of it include Stoney Creek Bridge, the Rail Bridge over Christmas Creek, Kuranda railway station, and Surprise Creek Rail Bridge. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 August 1992. The railway is used to operate a tourist rail service, the Kuranda Scenic Railway. It forms part of the Tablelands railway line.
History The Redlynch to the Crooked Creek Bridge portion of the Cairns-to-Kuranda railway constitutes most of the second section (Redlynch to Myola) of a planned railway line to Herberton. It ascends the coastal range and travels around Stoney Creek Gorge and through the Barron Gorge, to a height of at Barron Falls railway station. It proceeds through Kuranda railway station from Redlynch, to Crooked Creek Bridge from Redlynch. Built between April 1887 and June 1891 through a steep and slip-prone landscape, the section is a feat of engineering which in 2011 included 15 concrete-lined tunnels and 39 timber or steel bridges (from Redlynch up to and including Crooked Creek Bridge).
Mining provided the original impetus for building a railway line up to the Atherton Tablelands from Cairns. Cooktown thrived as a port for the Palmer River goldfield, discovered in 1873, but it was too far from the Hodgkinson goldfield, discovered further south in early 1876. Trinity Bay was chosen as the port for the Hodgkinson; the first settlers arrived in October 1876 and Cairns became a port of entry on 1 November 1876. However, the founding of Port Douglas in 1877 almost stifled Cairns, as the former provided an easier access route to the Hodgkinson. When tin was discovered on the Wild River in 1880, the road from Port Douglas to Herberton was also preferred to the pack tracks from Cairns.
Cairns salvaged its economy after a heavy wet season in early 1882 closed the road from Port Douglas, resulting in calls for a railway from Herberton to the coast. Linking mining areas to ports by railway was already Queensland Government policy. In August 1877 the Queensland government had approved three railways to connect mining towns to their principal ports: Charters Towers to Townsville (Great Northern railway line); Mount Perry to Bundaberg (Mount Perry railway line); and Gympie to Maryborough (North Coast railway line).
The Minister for Works, John Macrossan, commissioned the explorer Christie Palmerston to find a route from Herberton to Cairns or Port Douglas; but in August 1882 Palmerston reported that there was no natural route. The Johnstone Divisional Board commissioned Palmerston to find a route to Mourilyan Harbour during late 1882, but as the Board failed to pay him, Palmerston did not report his findings.
The search for a rail route continued, with the Railway Department's surveyor, George William Monk, arriving in Cairns in April 1883. Surveys of the various possible routes to Cairns, Port Douglas and Mourilyan were carried out by Monk and other surveyors and in late 1884 Robert Ballard, the Railway Department's Chief Engineer (Central and Northern Railway Division) reported to the Commissioner for Railways the cost would be the same from any of the three rival termini, but Cairns was the better port. The preferred route from Cairns was via the Barron Gorge, although the Mulgrave River had also been considered. The government's decision in favour of Cairns was announced, much to the outrage of Port Douglas residents, on 10 September 1884. The decision to build the railway from Cairns ensured that it became the preeminent town in far north Queensland; yet the Barron Gorge was chosen in ignorance of its unstable geology, which later proved costly in both money and lives.
Parliament approved plans for the first of the Cairns to Herberton railway in late 1885 but the contract let to Messrs PC Smith and Co. on 1 April 1886 was only for the first . On 10 May 1886, the Premier Sir Samuel Griffith turned the first sod. Smith lacked the experience for even such a short section and McBride and Co took over the contract in November 1886. The government then had to take over from McBride in July 1887. The first section opened on 8 October 1887 and the terminus was soon named Redlynch. In 1911 a deviation shortened the first section, meaning that Redlynch was no longer at the eight-mile mark from Cairns.
When the railway line opened, there were a number of railway sidings along the line: Stratford (5 miles from Cairns), Lily Bank (6 miles from Cairns), and Richmond (7 miles from Cairns). Richmond Siding was renamed Freshwater Siding (later Freshwater railway station) in January 1890. The development of the railway line had encouraged land developers to release a land subdivision called Richmond Park Estate near the railway line and Freshwater Creek, which was sold from 1886 with advertising featuring the forthcoming Richmond Park railway station and its ten-minute rail journey to Cairns; this explains the original name of the siding.
The ascent of the range to Kuranda began with the awarding of the second section of the contract (Redlynch to Myola) to John Robb of Melbourne in January 1887 for . Robb was an experienced contractor, and brought hundreds of men to the job. Robb also had mining, rural and business interests in South Australia, New South Wales and Melbourne, where he was a founding director of the Federal Bank in 1881. The Kuranda ascent was his most significant work, but his company's other contracts included Tasmania's and Western Australia's first railways. He returned home to Toorak when he left Cairns, was declared insolvent in October 1894 and died in May 1896, aged 62.
Work on the second section began in April 1887. To aid construction Robb built a branch line from Redlynch to the main construction camp at Kamerunga beside the Barron River, and public trains extended to Kamerunga from 20 October 1888. Robb planned to work at various points along the line simultaneously, and tracks ran from Kamerunga to the sites for tunnels 2, 3, 6 and 9, to the Stoney Creek Bridge site and to The Springs.
One feature of interest near the beginning of section two is Horseshoe Bend, located after the third timber bridge from Redlynch. In December 1888 the embankment at the bend was described as high, wide at the top, and wide at the base, and was sown with Couch grass (Cynodon dactylon) on the sides. The embankment has since been widened using landslide material. Section two used Horseshoe Bend to gain height, followed by the line ascending to the top of Barron Falls. The section then followed the Barron River to Kuranda, terminating at Myola, almost past Kuranda. Nineteen tunnels had been originally planned between Horseshoe Bend and Barron Falls Station, but four (two between Stoney Creek and Tunnel 14 and two at Red Bluff) were subsequently replaced by cuttings. Sand from the bed of the Barron River was used as the base material for concrete work on the second section; all the tunnels were concrete lined, and culverts and drains were also built in concrete.
The Cairns Railway's range ascent tunnels represent the largest group of tunnels in Queensland and were the 24th to 38th of the 64 tunnels opened in Queensland from 1866 to 1996. By 30 January 1889 tunnels 1 and 2 were finished; Tunnel 3 was in a forward state, while 4–9 and 12–13 were ready for lining. Tunnels 10 and 11 had headings through only, while tunnels 16 and 19 were not yet opened. Work was authorised on the redesigned and lengthened Tunnel 19 in December 1889. Due to the cancellation of four tunnels, tunnels 16 and 19 were renumbered as today's tunnels 14 and 15.
As well as tunnels, bridgework was a major element of the construction work on the second section. The total length of steel required to complete the bridgework was around . The steel work was all cut, fitted and partly riveted by Walkers Ltd of Maryborough. In 2011 the steel bridges between Redlynch and Kuranda included: six with lattice girders; plus Bridge 42 (1890), where fishbelly plate cross- girders have been reused as main span members; Bridge 50 over Mervyn Creek (which replaced an earlier timber bridge in the 1920s); and Jumrum Creek Bridge (Bridge 51), which although mainly timber has a steel central span (the bridge was reconstructed in 1962). There were also five very short steel bridges by 2011. About past Kuranda is Crooked Creek Bridge, which in about 1900 reused (shortened) plate girders from the 1867 Bridge 51 on the Main Range. The bridge has been strengthened with new steel piers either side of the concrete pier, and its replacement steel cross girders also originally came from Bridge 51 on the Main Range.
There were 24 timber trestle bridges extant in 2011, but none of these retain their original timber. The local scrub hickory originally used in the bridges was of poor quality, requiring replacement work in the 1890s to 1900s. Components of the timber bridges are also gradually being replaced with steel, due to the scarcity of suitable hardwood, and over the years some bridges have been replaced with concrete culverts.
The steel bridges have retained their integrity to a greater degree. The bridges with highest heritage significance are the steel lattice-girder bridges; all built during the construction of the second section. Three are located at Stoney Creek, Surprise Creek, and Christmas Creek. The other three are Bridge 21, the first steel bridge on the section, located between Tunnel 3 and Tunnel 4; Bridge 23, after Tunnel 9; and Bridge 29 between Stoney Creek Station and the Stoney Creek Bridge. The bridges have been renumbered since construction: for example, today's Bridge 21 was originally called Bridge 11.
Stoney Creek Bridge
Stoney Creek Bridge (originally bridge number 26, now bridge 30), in front of Stoney Creek Falls, is built on a radius curve and was designed by the government engineer John Gwynneth. The design is unique in Queensland, the curve being the only way to avoid tunnelling. By the end of 1887 the concrete foundations on which the wrought iron trestles (Phoenix columns) were erected were well underway. It is one of only two Queensland railway bridges constructed with wrought iron trestles, the other being Christmas Creek Bridge, further up the line. A visit to Cairns by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Henry Wylie Norman, in April 1890 was taken as an opportunity to inspect the construction works. A marquee, covering a banquet table and open to the waterfall, had been set up on the almost completed Stoney Creek Bridge with planks laid over the sleepers. There were no speeches due to the roar of the waterfall immediately behind the bridge. The bridge passed load testing on 30 June 1890.
In the period of the early 1900s large quantities of rock in the vicinity of the bridge were removed, due to the risk of rock falls. Work was carried out in 1916 to strengthen riveted connections, and in 1922 timber longitudinals were substituted for the ballast flooring of the original bridge, to reduce corrosion problems.