Central Western railway line
The new Queensland Government was keen to facilitate development and immigration, and had approved the construction of the Main Line from Ipswich, about 160 kilometres (99 mi) to the fertile Darling Downs region in 1864.
[1] Following the establishment of the settlement of Rockhampton in 1858, and the discovery of gold at nearby Canoona in 1859, there were calls for improved land transportation in the region.
The first section opened to Westwood, the place where the roads to Taroom, Springsure, Peak Downs and the central west diverged, 46 kilometres (29 mi) from Rockhampton, in September 1867.
Freight being carried by bullock teams from further west found no advantage to transferring to rail for such a short distance, and so the government was forced to extend the line in sections from 1874, reaching Blackwater in 1877[2] and the Nogoa River in 1879, leading to the establishment of the town of Emerald.
Construction then proceeded west virtually tracking the Tropic of Capricorn, with settlements developing once the line was built.
The town of Winton became the terminal of the Great Northern line from Townsville in 1899, and became a major livestock loading point for the central western region.
Linking Winton to the Central West line was seen as providing additional markets for the livestock, and the extension opened in September 1928.
Coal had been noted by the earliest explorers to the Central Queensland region, but domestic demand was met by relatively small local mines.
In the 1950s major exploration programs identified large reserves of high quality coal, and a series of mines and associated railways have been developed since that time.
This line was opened via Capella to Clermont (100 km) in 1884 to serve the developing Peak Downs copper mine.
It was extended north to the Blair Athol coal mine in 1910, and a short extension was opened in 1912 to Birimgan to access a source of timber for sleepers in conjunction with the Great Western Railway proposal.
A connection to the separate but proximate Blair Athol-Mackay line was opened in 1986, providing the Emerald district with rail access to the Mackay port, and closed on 26 June 2013.
In 1892, the Central Western Mail train, with first class sleeping carriages and a travelling post office (TPO), departed Rockhampton three times each week at 10pm, arriving in Longreach at 5pm the following day.
It was replaced by the Spirit of the Outback in November 1993, commencing from Brisbane and terminating at Longreach, Winton losing its passenger service from that time.
