[5] The company was originally established in 2004–05 when the coal, bulk, and container transport divisions from Queensland Rail were brought under one banner as QR National.

The corporate regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, approved the sale subject to One Rail Australia's coal-haulage business in New South Wales and Queensland being divested.

[10] The QR National brand was established in the 2004–05 financial year when Queensland Rail's coal, bulk and containerised business units were brought under one banner.

[11] In 2005, QR National started to operate export coal services in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

In February 2022, Aurizon commenced a five-year contract to haul mineral sands from Broken Hill to Kwinana for Tronox, to be extended 320 km east to Ivanhoe, where a new loading facility has been constructed.

[30][31] In the same year, QR National acquired logistics company CRT Group, for which it already provided line haulage.

[40] The transaction was approved in July 2022 by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) after the commission accepted Aurizon's court-enforceable undertaking to dispose of the seller's Hunter Valley coal haulage and Queensland coal haulage business to maintain competition levels.

[46] In December 2022, Aurizon agreed to an offer by Magnetic Rail Group Pty Ltd to purchase the divested assets.

Aurizon disputed the price that it should be allowed to charge its clients – for example when the Authority used a lower weighted average cost of capital that did not account for the risk that clean energy poses to fossil fuel.

In March 2023, Aurizon and Viterra proposed that the Australian federal government supply A$220 million in funding to repair and upgrade the Eyre Peninsula Railway lines.

The proposal included re-opening the Port Lincoln–Wudinna and Cummins-Kimba lines and upgrading the outloading facilities at Viterra's Lock, Wudinna, Cummins, Kimba and Rudall sites.