Dawson Valley (Theodore) railway line

It branched from the Central Western railway line at Kabra in the Rockhampton Region and went via Mount Morgan to Theodore in the Shire of Banana.

The Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company was authorised by government in 1890 to build a railway link to Rockhampton but it did not proceed.

The rack system consisted of 2 parallel toothed vertical bars fixed between the rails which connected with specially built locomotives.

Two trains ran each way on Sundays thus enabling visitors to conveniently travel the short distance between Mount Morgan and Rockhampton.

Despite the high cost of operating the rack section, the line proved very profitable due to the volume of traffic created by, and for the mine.

Terminating at Wowan, the first stage opened on 16 October 1912 and en route sidings appeared at Talban, Kenbula, Ulogie, Muranu, Walmul, Konara, Gelobera, Wura, Dululu and Littles Crossing.

However, the Nathan Dam, the centrepiece of the Dawson Valley Irrigation Scheme, was never built, and the extension to Delusion Creek was never required.

The rack railway section near Mount Morgan was closed in 1952 after a conventional line was built to bypass it, with grades of 1 in 50 (2%).

Goolara is the site of a grain terminal, and the Goolara-Moura section is now effectively part of the Moura railway line.

When it opened, triple header diesel hauled trains took 4000 ton coal loads direct to Gladstone.