Main Range Railway
| Main Range Railway | |
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Tunnel #2 down, Main Range Railway, 2008
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| Location | Railway Corridor from the end of Murphy's Creek Station to Ruthven Street overbridge, Harlaxton, Murphys Creek, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°29′21″S 152°00′23″E / 27.4892°S 152.0063°ECoordinates: 27°29′21″S 152°00′23″E / 27.4892°S 152.0063°E |
| Design period | 1840s - 1860s (mid-19th century) |
| Built | 1865-1867 |
| Official name: Main Range Railway | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 5 February 2009 |
| Reference no. | 601480 |
| Significant period | 1865-1867 establishment period |
| Significant components | views from, railway station, pavilion, embankment - railway, quarry, shed - storage, waiting room, formation - railway, building foundations/ruins, trees/plantings, platform, wall/s - retaining, culvert - railway, residential accommodation - workers' housing, abutments - railway bridge, railway, bridge/viaduct - railway, signal box/signal cabin/switch house/mechanical points (rail), garden/grounds, tunnel - railway, signals, cutting - railway, drainage, machinery/plant/equipment - transport - rail |
| Builders | Peto, Brassey and Betts |
 Location of Main Range Railway in Queensland
Location of Main Range Railway in Queensland
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Main Range Railway is a heritage-listed railway from the end of Murphys Creek railway station, Murphys Creek to the Ruthven Street overbridge, Harlaxton, Queensland, Australia. It forms part of the Main Line railway and was built from 1865 to 1867 by railway builders Peto, Brassey and Betts. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 February 2009.
The Main Range Railway, between Murphys Creek and Harlaxton on the outskirts of Toowoomba, was built in 1865–1867 by railway builders Peto, Brassey and Betts, for the colonial Government of Queensland.
The Main Range, part of Australia's Great Dividing Range, was a formidable geological barrier to trade following pastoral settlement on the Darling Downs in the 1840s. An adequate transport link between the sheep stations of the Darling Downs and the ports of Brisbane and Ipswich became increasingly important to enable the export of wool and the import of station supplies. A number of dray routes were used, with varying degrees of difficulty, to move goods and people across the Main Range during the 1840s. From 1847 Spicer's Gap replaced Cunningham's Gap (1828) as the preferred route in the southern Downs region. On the northern end of the Downs, Gorman's Gap was used from 1840, followed by Hodgson's Gap in 1842.
In 1855 the Toll Bar Road was opened and the traffic that soon came to use this route facilitated the expansion of the settlement of "The Swamp", from 1857 officially known as Toowoomba. By the early 1860s Toowoomba was the principal settlement on the Darling Downs, supplanting nearby Drayton as the service centre for the surrounding district. In this period, the pastoralists of the Darling Downs wielded significant political and economic power in the young colony of Queensland. This influenced the decision to initiate Queensland's railway network from Ipswich, considered the port for the Darling Downs, rather than Brisbane.
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