Queensland Railway Guide
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_,,, , a.)1u u Z).1,A:121 - -- QUEENSLAND RAILWAY& TOURISTS'GUI DE, COMPILED UNDER INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE QUEENSLANDRAILWAY COMMISSIONERS, ByA. MESTON. WITH MAP AND 22 ILLUSTRATIONS. CONCISE HISTORY OF THE COLONY, AND COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF ALL COUNTRY TRAVERSED BY THE RAILWAY LINES, WITH INTERESTING EXTRA INFORMATION FOR TOURISTS , TRAVELLERS, AND ALL OTHER CLASSES. j3Ub ti ,sh xz : GORDON GOTCH, QUEEN STREET , AND RAILWAY BOOKSTALLS, BRISBANE. A ND AT SYDNEY , MELBOURNE , AND LONDON. This is a blank page AUTHOR'S PREFACE. WHEN the Queensland Railway Commissioners asked me to under- take the preparation of a Railway and Tourists' Guide, I recognised at once the honour of their confidence, and also the grave responsi- bility of so important a work. The chief problem before me was condensation. The picture was vast, the canvas limited. In a book of 1176 pages there can only be a highly concentrated view of so immense a territory as Queensland, such varied scenery, and such boundless resources. With the exception of the chapter on "Coal," and "Cook- town to the Gulf," the whole of the work has been written by myself ; all information the result of my own research, and all description from my own personal observation in a general tour over the whole of the Colony. There was special care to ensure accuracy of historical information and descriptive details, so that the whole could be issued to the public as a reliable work qualified for educational purposes. before me was the clearly apparent public duty to make the book strictly impartial to all parts of the Colony, and also sternly guard against everything in the nature of an advertisement for any trade, profession, business, or individual. The monotony of descrip- tion is broken by historical events, varied information including native names of stations and localities, aboriginal reminiscences, and interesting incidents of colonization. More or less congenial was the work I undertook, and life-long will be the pleasant memory of the kindness and consideration shown to me by the people in all parts of the Colony. Sufficient will be my reward if the " Tourists' Guide " justifies in public opinion that confidence the Railway Commis- sioners so gracefully bestowed, and by me to he ever kindly remembered. ARCHIBALD MESTON. CONTENTS. PAGE. EARLY HISTORY ... ... ... 1 CLIMATE ... ... ... ... 9 BRISBANE ... ... ... ... 13 BRISBANE WESTWARD ... ... 20 IPSWICH TO TOOWOOMBA ... 23 COAL RESOURCES ... ... ... 32 TOOWOOMBA TO CHARLEVILLE ... 37 TOOWOOMBA TO WARWICK ... 50 TOOWOOMBA TO PITTSWORTH ... 54 WARWICK TO WALLANGARRA ... 55 WARWICK TO KILLARNEY ... 57 TOOWOOMBA TO CROW'S NEST ... 61 BRISBANE TO CLEVELAND ... 63 SOUTHPORT RAILWAY ... 65 IPSWICH TO ESK ... ... ... 69 IPSWICH TO DUGANDAN ... ... 71 QUEENSLAND COAST SCENERY ... 73 WHITSUNDAY PASSAGE ... ... 76 BRISBANE TO GYMPIE 87 MARYBOROUGH TO GYMPIE ... 89 MARYBOROUGH TO GAYNDAH ... 98 MARYBOROUGH TO BUNDABERG ... 99 BUNDABERG TO MOUNT PERRY ... 100 ROCKHAMPTON RAILWAYS ... 104 EMU PARK RAILWAY ... ... 107 ROCKHAMPTON TO BARCALDINE ... 110 CLERMONT RAILWAY ... ... 115 SPRINGSURE RAILWAY ... ... 119 MACKAY RAILWAY ... ... 121 BO WEN RAILWAY ... ... ... 125 TOWNSVILLE RAILWAYS ... ... 126 TOWNSVILLE TO HUGHENDEN ... 131 HINCHINBROOK PASSAGE 135 CAIRNS RAILWAY ... ... ... 137 THE BARRON FALLS IN FLOOD TIME 145 COOKTOWN RAILWAY ... ... 149 COOKTOWN TO NORMANTON ... 153 SANDGATE RAILWAY ... ... 160 RAILWAY TO BEAUDESERT ... 162 RAVENSWOOD RAILWAY ... ... 164 OUR MINERALS ... ... ... 166 ADVICE TO TOURISTS ... ... 172 ERRATA. On page 3, the total length of our telegraph lines should he ten thousand miles. On page 4, the 2,250 miles of coast should include the total seaboard. On page 18, the name of the Parliamentary Librarian should be Denis O'Donovan. On page 52, for to 57, read by 57. On page 57, the year Canning Downs was taken up should be 1840. Top line, page g1, the year 1840 should be 1850. On page 134, the year the Beagle discovered the Flinders should be 1841. This is a blank page NEW EXHIBITION BUILDING, BRISBANE. OAKDEN, ADDISON & KEMP, ARCHITECTS. EARLY1JISTORY AND PROGRESS. ITH the exception of Victoria, no British Colony-no Colony of any Nation-has furnished such an extra- ordinary example of rapid development from small beginnings to a condition of enviable prosperity, as the Colony which it is our task at present to describe. A very brief glance at the early history of Queensland will serve to emphasise the contrast between the early stages of settlement and the present flourishing condition of the Colony. On the 2nd December, 1823, Lieutenant Oxley, then Surveyor- General of New South Wales, discovered the Brisbane River, and on the 24th September of the following year, a convict settlement was formed on the point opposite Sandgate, now known as " Humpy Bong," a name given to the " Dead Houses " left standing there when the convicts were removed to the present site of the city of Brisbane. Fifty four years after Cook saw the green hills and white sand dunes of Moreton Island, the first convicts stepped ashore on the rocks at Redcliffe Point. Fifteen years more saw the last convicts rounding Cape Moreton on their return to Sydney, and a -further period of eighteen years beheld the convict settlement of Moreton Bay transformed into the " Colony of Queensland," purified from the convict taint, free to elect its own Parliament and frame its own laws, and start forward with new life and new hopes on the journey to the unknown but promising future. In 1859, the year in which Queensland was proclaimed an inde- pendent Colony, the total population amounted to 25,000. The value of Brisbane and Ipswich property was only a million, and the total of all other Queensland towns, about £400,000. We had only 2,000 acres under cultivation, 20,000 horses, 300,000 cattle, and two millions of sheep. The manufacturing industries of the colony were represented by four saw mills, one soap and one candle factory, two coal mines, and a precarious dugong fishery. B 2 QUEENSLAND RAILWAY TOURIST GUIDE. Contrast these statistics with those furnished for the year 1888,, the intervening period being less than that usually reckoned as the average duration of a generation of men. In 1888 the population had risen to 400,000. The runs have increased from 1300 in 1860 to 6836, representing- an area of 293,000,000 acres. Cultivation has risen from 2000 to 214,000 acres. We have alienated 9,446,273 acres which realised £6,016,427. In 1888 we had 324,326 horses, 4,654,932 cattle and 13,444,000 sheep. Our manufactures are represented by 106 sugar mills, which in 1888 produced 34,020 tons of sugar. Our 28 breweries brewed 3,015,000 gallons of beer. The vignerons made 145,000 gallons of wine, the 10 distilleries 73,000 gallons of proof spirit. There are 25 soap and candle works, 5 tobacco manufactories, 25 tanneries, 106 brickyards, 9 potteries, 5 iceworks, 122 sawmills, and 1209 various other works and manufactories distributed over the Colony. Our Goldfields to the end of 1888 gave us gold valued at. £21,500,000, representing a yield of about 6,089,000 oz. We have 552 public schools with an annual enrolment of 68,000 pupils, taught by 973 teachers and 507 pupil teachers, receiving salaries and allowances amounting to £151,830. We have expended £75,000 in erecting five Grammar Schools. containing 600 pupils, taught by 43 teachers. There are 126 private schools, with 437 teachers and 7,400 scholars. There are over 80,000 volumes in the 65 Schools of Arts and Reading Rooms of the Colony. Our Legislative Assembly contains 72 members, representing about 70,000 electors. The capital value of the rateable property in the 384 square miles controlled by the 32 Municipalities, Boroughs and Shires is £23,296,201, and that of 103 Divisional Boards amounts to £26,593,633, a total of nearly fifty millions. Our Imports in 1888 ran to £6,646,738, our Exports to £6,126,362. Receipts from Telegraphs rose from £938 in 1860 to £103,800 in 1888, and from the Post Office, in the same period, from £4,866 to, £128,800. The Savings Bank contained a fixed deposit of £1,580,000,. representing 43,003 depositors. EARLY HISTORY AND PROGRESS. 3 On our Goldfields are 2,324 reefs proved to be auriferous, and the actual workings in reefs and alluvial extend over 15,000 acres. There are 45 Mining Companies with a nominal capital of 101 millions, and 14,515 miners' rights were issued in 1888. In 1860 there were 278 marriages, and in 1888 the number had increased to 3254. There are 262 registered Joint Stock Companies, three with a capital of a million, one with three quarters of a million, and several with half a million. The first section of our railways, a length of 21 miles, from Ipswich to Grandchester, was opened on the 31st July, 1865, and on the 31st of December, 1888, we had 1924 miles open for traffic. The liabilities of our Banks represented £12,071,000, and the notes in circulation to £741,000. The deposits amounted to £11,202,000, and the assets to £20,000,000. The coin in the Banks gave £1,857,000, and advances were made to the extent of seventeen millions. Our public reserves cover an area of 67,000 acres. The Goldfields alone contain a population of 42,000. Ad Our telegraph lines represent a total length of about % thousand miles. These few authentic facts will be sufficient to show the magnificent progress made by the Colony in 28 years, and the importance at the present time. They also reliably indicate the prospects of the future. In the most prosperous countries of the world, past or present, there are or have been brief periods of depression, local or general, and more or less distress due to the stagnation of some industry, a transient surfeit of the labour market, adverse seasons and improvi- dence ; but the prosperity of a state is to be judged by the per- manence of its resources, the variety of its occupations, the stability of its industries, and the steady advance in the general welfare and contentment of the people.