Mount Cuthbert and Dobbyn railway lines

Mount Cuthbert is 100  kilometres north-west of Cloncurry, Queensland. It was once a copper mining town, booming in 1918, when Pugh's Almanac Queensland Directory estimated Mount Cuthbert's population at 750. It recorded six boarding houses, a hotel, a racing club and several stores in the town. Mount Cuthbert's population quickly declined mainly due to the global collapse of the copper market. Mt Cuthbert in the 1921 census had population of only 267 and by 1924 Pugh's notes that most storekeepers had left. The Railway branch line to Mount Cuthbert was closed in 1949.

Mount Cuthbert region still had copper. With roads and developing mining techniques, the copper of Mount Cuthbert found renewed interest in 2009. Cape Lambert secured Queensland copper company Matrix Metals, including a mine and a copper cathode plant at Mount Cuthbert.

Cloncurry was named by the explorer Robert O'Hara Burke after Lady Cloncurry, an Irish friend. Copper mining between 1910 and 1920 boosted its population to over seven thousand people. Mining output attracted listings on both the Melbourne and London . Three companies dominated the industry: Hampden-Clonurry Cooper Mines Ltd., Mount Elliot Ltd. and Mount Cuthbert No Liability. Germany was the major customer until 1914.

State Parliament approved a 68 kilometre branch railway from Cloncurry to Koolamarra in late 1911. Construction did not commence until late 1912 and the line did not open until 16 November 1914. Koolamarra (formerly Longamundi) was then the terminus.

Completion of the line to Mount Cuthbert was not officially opened until 1 September 1916. En route it passed through Kajabbi (apparently derived from an Aboriginal word indicating a kite hawk) and Oona (formerly named Kalkadoon). Rail traffic was heavy because firewood was conveyed to Mount Cuthbert to fuel smelters, and copper was railed east to the Queensland coast.

Further mines were located a short distance to the north-east of Mount Cuthbert around Dobbyn. A 33 kilometre extension from Oona to Dobbyn opened on 21 May 1917 so that additional copper could be accessed. Spur lines were built to the Orphan and Excelsior mines.

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