Queensland Rail is celebrating a century of the vital rail link which changed travel to North Queensland forever.
The first section of the North Coast line was opened in 1881, with the final section completed 43 years later in December 1924 with the opening of the Daradgee Bridge, near Innisfail.
Today the North Coast line is the principal regional freight and passenger line within the Queensland Rail network, running 1,681kms along Queensland’s coastline between Brisbane and Cairns.
Queensland Rail historian Greg Hallam said to the train traveller in the twenty first century the construction of a railway linking the eastern seaboard of Queensland would possibly seem one of the most logical ideas for the development of a railway.
“However, in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the majority of travel between the isolated railway systems of Queensland was carried out by coastal shipping,” he said.
“In 1910 the North Coast Railway Act was passed by Queensland’s Parliament and this authorised the construction of the further 731 km of railways between Brisbane and Cairns. The work on the final sections of the North Coast line was extremely challenging, dangerous and costly. There was one documented case of a worker who disappeared at the river near Cardwell being taken by a crocodile.
“An official opening was held on 8 December 1924, involving Premier Ted Theodore driving C17 Class locomotive No. 253, which was hauling the first train across the Daradgee bridge.”
There are multiple customer services a week on the 25-hour long rail journey between Brisbane and Cairns on the iconic Spirit of Queensland.
The journey through the 28 train stations that make up the North Coast line is popular, with nearly 132,000 passenger journeys in the last financial year.
“Thousands of people arrived on special trains from Cairns, Townsville and the Atherton Tableland, to witness the historic event,” Hallam said.
“For the first time it was possible to make an uninterrupted train journey between Brisbane and Cairns.
“The completion of the North Coast line was crucial to the development of North Queensland.”
Queensland Rail Travel also operates several other passenger services on the line, including the Tilt Trains and Spirit of the Outback, servicing central and north Queensland.
A small celebration will be held at Cairns railway station on 8 December between 7-9.30am with some sweet treats to be handed out to customers.
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