Dorrigo railway line

Dorrigo railway line
Ulong railway station
Overview
Termini	Glenreagh Dorrigo
Stations	11
Operation
Opened	1924
Closed	1972
Operator(s)	NSWGR
Technical
Line length	41 mi (66 km)
Number of tracks	1
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Highest elevation	731 m (2,398 ft)
map_name North Coast railway line from Sydney Orara River Glenreagh West Depot Tunnel 1 Tunnel 2 Timber Top Siding Moleton Mole Creek Tank Lowanna Little Nymboida River Ulong Bobo River Brooklana Lloyd Cascade Briggsvale Wild Cattle Creek Megan Leigh Bielsdown River Dorrigo

The Dorrigo railway line is a closed railway line in the north of New South Wales, Australia. It branches from the North Coast line at Glenreagh.

The Dorrigo line was intended to be part of a much larger rail system linking the ports of Coffs Harbour and Grafton with the Northern and North western lines. The line would have joined with the system at Guyra, Inverell and Werris Creek. These plans never came to fruition and construction work was commenced on only two sections, between Glenreagh and Dorrigo and Guyra and Dorrigo. Only about 13 km of the latter was partially constructed.

Dorrigo, the terminus of the Glenreagh to Dorrigo line, is situated on a plateau some 730m high in some of the best dairying country in Australia. It has a consistently high rainfall and is the main township for the area known as "The Dorrigo" (short for 'The Dorrigo Plateau'). The town is situated in a geographical location which could best be described as mountainous. Being a rainforest area, it has a high rainfall and fertile soil, but it is also given to landslides and land subsidence. It was into this setting that a line of railway was built, encountering many difficulties in its construction.

On 28 December 1910 the Glenreagh to Dorrigo Railway Act received assent to sanction the construction. It was not until early August 1914 that construction officially commenced. Because of the First World War, a lack of finance and a dispute with the contractor, progress foundered. The contract was terminated on 28 March 1917 and construction passed to the Railway Commissioners who promptly suspended work.

It was almost two years after the end of the First World War that the Railway Commissioners decided to press ahead with construction. Delays occurred due to landslips and washaway and it was not until 27 September 1924 that a construction train reached Dorrigo. Construction was finalised by 5 December and an inspection of the line was conducted by Railways staff on the 10th.