[1] In 1867 William Landsborough investigated the Norman River area to select a port site to serve the pastoral stations south of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Phillips later supervised the construction of the Normanton to Croydon Railway, and retained an interest in the area, serving in the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Carpentaria in the 1890s.

This was a difficult stretch for carriers and a rail link would have been valuable to pastoral stations in the area and was planned to serve the Cloncurry Copper Mine.

It was at the time intended to eventually link the new line with the Great Northern Railway connecting Charters Towers and the important port of Townsville.

However, in November 1885 a major gold strike was reported at Belmore Station, 145 kilometres (90 mi) east of Normanton and by the end of 1886 the population of the Croydon field was 2000 and rising rapidly in a booming town.

The country was flat but difficult for conventional railway tracks due to flooding, lack of suitable timber for sleepers and termite attack.

In 1884 Phillips patented a system for taking railways across such country which utilised special U-section steel sleepers laid directly on the ground.

During floods the line could be submerged without washing out the ballast and embankments normally used, so that it could quickly be put back into service when the waters subsided.

During the late 1890s special trains were run for picnics at most of the water holes along the line, particularly the Blackbull lagoon and weekend excursions from Normanton to Croydon or Golden Gate.

Special trains were regularly put on to serve picnic outings along the line and sports events like race days.

By the early 1900s its output had dropped considerably and after World War I when widespread mining diminished, it was obvious that the field would not recover.

This was largely because the Phillips system worked well and the track could be put back into use almost immediately after flooding, whereas roads stayed impassable for much longer.

In the 1930s, all weather roads made the railway less important, but until the late 1960s the rail remained a vital transport link in the area.

The line, carried for most of its length on Phillips patent steel sleepers, runs over level country and crosses a number of streams by low-level bridges.

This is located beside the line at a short distance from the station building and near the former goods shed, the concrete slab of which survives nearby.

The Normanton to Croydon railway illustrates the way in which the rail system in Queensland developed as a series of isolated lines which connected ports to inland resources.