Many of our readers and researchers would be familiar with the contents held in the John Oxley collections pertaining to the subject of railways across Queensland. Items such as the many digitized railway images, eight (8) printed volumes ‘Notes on Queensland railways’ by John Kerr or an 1887 map showing the new county of Queensland showing all rail roads, coach roads, towns, cities, stations, would realise the importance of the rail network as contributing to the establishment of Queensland communities, economy, business, agriculture, expansion and development.
Digitised map of the County of Queensland, 1887
November 30th 2013 is the date chosen to mark the centenary of the opening of the rail link between Woodford and Kilcoy town ships, approximately 110 kilometres north west of Brisbane on the Caboolture line. The events around the official opening nearly 100 years ago on December 22, 1913 are to be celebrated once more in 2013. So important was the coming of the rail that the community of Kilcoy in the Somerset Regional Council plans to unveil an official plaque, provide entertainment, and re-enact the events of the official opening. I will happily share more about the event when I return from attending the event, as I grew up in the community and have vivid memories of traveling on the train as a young child before it closed on July 1, 1964.
Opening of Kilcoy Railway Station, December 1913
Earlier, the Brisbane Courier reported in December 1908 that a deputation of residents - Messrs. Henry Plantagenet Somerset, M.LA., William Butler, R Seib, sen., J. Young, J. Green, C. W. Carseldine, W. Bradley, J. Kennedy, J. N. Twiddle, W. Y. Seeney, W. Downes, E. Pratten, T. Walker, W. Bleakley, H. C. Cowie. J. Kirby, J. Walsh, A. Barlow, H. Carseldine, G. Eaton, and Handcock visited the Minister for Railways in his office, to influence a positive outcome. Mr J.D. Campbell M.L.A. “emphasised that the deputation represented the timber, pastoral, agricultural, fruit-growing, and dairying industries of the district ”… and that it was necessary for the growth of the district.
It goes without saying there were many more reports, surveys and discussions before approval came a year later in 1909 and the rail line extension from Woodford to Kilcoy a reality four (4) years later just prior to Christmas in 1913. A petition signed by 216 residents indicated the importance of the railway extension and acknowledged that the enterprise would bring additional wealth to the Crown if it was extended the additional “33 miles.” Prior to the rail extension residents relied on their own modes of transport or the local coach service as seen below.
Caboolture to Hopetoun (Kilcoy) Coaches, 1906
As a result of the rail development, new communities sprang up along the line – Durundur, Neurum, Royston, Villeneuve, Glenfern and Winya. All were watering stops along the way and soon new communities. The initial service took four hours to travel between Kilcoy to Caboolture, which was quite wearisome for the travellers, so from August 1927, a daily rail motor service was provided, cutting the length of the trip to 2hrs 20 mins.
Painted image of the first engine pulling into the station on the wall of the local ambulance building, c. 2000
It is thought that the advent of war in 1914 and the development of the motor car were reasons the line was not extended beyond Kilcoy. The 50 years the rail link did exist will be played out in living memory on the weekend of November 30.
Anne Scheu – Distributed Collections Coordinator, State Library of Queensland