Dajarra and Selwyn railway lines

Dajarra and Selwyn railway lines
Technical
Track gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)

Dajarra and Selwyn Branch Railways were lines in north-west Queensland, Australia. Along with the Mount Cuthbert and Dobbyn Branch Railways, they were essentially built to tap large deposits of copper discovered in the Cloncurry region.

Construction of the Selwyn Branch began in 1909. The line ran about 50 kilometres south from Cloncurry railway station to Malbon railway station with sidings built en route at Dolomite, Marimo, Mitakoodi and Marraba. From there it continued south to the Hampden mine and opened on 11 June 1910. The fledgling township was first named Gulatten, then Hampden, then for a brief time Friezland before finally being renamed in 1916 as Kuridala (an Aboriginal word indicating eagle hawk). An extension further south to the Mount Elliott mine at Selwyn opened on 15 December 1910 (along with the Selwyn Range named after Alfred Selwyn, Director of the Geological Survey of Victoria). Smelted copper was railed east and coking coal on return journeys. Cattle and coke also exchanged trips. Falling copper prices forced the closure of the Mount Elliott and Hampden smelters in 1919 and 1920 respectively. The branch continued to operate at a slow pace until it was closed in 1961. Road transport no doubt squeezed out the cattle market.

The Dajarra branch ran from Malbon in a south-westerly direction to the small town of Dajarra. Its construction served two purposes. It would immediately provide access to additional copper deposits, and later could contribute to the grand plan to link Sydney and Darwin by inland rail and also be linked to partially built branch lines from Brisbane, Rockhampton and Townsville on Queensland’s east coast. From 1911, some 100 kilometres of the line was surveyed from Malbon to Sulieman’s Creek near Dajarra where it would connect to the proposed inland route.

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