Main Line railway, Queensland

The Main Line is a railway line in South East Queensland, Australia. It was opened in a series of sections between 1865 and 1867. It commences at Roma St Station in Brisbane and extends west 161 km to Toowoomba. It is the first narrow gauge main line constructed in the world. The section of the line from the end of Murphys Creek railway station to the Ruthven Street overbridge, Harlaxton is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register. The Murphys Creek Railway Complex, the Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Lockyer), the Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge (Murphys Creek) and Swansons Rail Bridge are also heritage listed.

The 31 km section from Ipswich (a city about 38 km from Brisbane) to Grandchester (originally Bigge’s Camp) was the first section of railway line opened in Queensland, on 31 July 1865.

Queensland Railways (QR) was the first operator in the world to adopt narrow gauge (in this case 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)) for a main line, and this remains the system wide gauge within Queensland today.

The colony of Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859, and the new government was keen to facilitate development and immigration. Improved transport to the fertile Darling Downs region situated west of Toowoomba was seen as a priority. As adequate river transport was already established between the capital Brisbane and the then separate settlement of Ipswich, the railway commenced from the latter locality and the initial section, built over relatively flat, easy country opened to Bigge’s Camp, at the eastern base of the Little Liverpool Range, on 31 July 1865. Called the Main Line, the only significant engineering work was the bridge over the Bremer River to North Ipswich.

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