It is very rare for a first railway to start from a provincial town, rather than the capital and the fact that it did reflects the early history of European settlement.

Being on a navigable river, the Bremer, when free settlement began, it soon developed into a thriving trading centre.

By 1843, the Moreton Bay region was represented in the New South Wales Parliament and questions concerning the development of the area raised the importance of transport.

Planning continued, but in 1859, the long sought separation of Queensland from New South Wales was proclaimed.

[1] Following a failed private scheme to set up a horse-drawn tramway, the Queensland Government stepped in.

Tenders were called at the end of 1863 and that of Peto, Brassey and Betts, a well-known British firm, was accepted.

[1] A line was laid down to the wharf to receive consignments of materials and move them to a workshops site on level ground above.

Public pressure for a bridge across the river resulted in a change of plan and the terminus was moved to South Ipswich in the business centre.

Traces of its route can still be discerned in some places by the presence of depressions formed under sleepers and hand forged spikes.

They are constructed of large coursed blocks of medium to coarse grained and pebbly sandstone with lime mortar.

[1] Heiner Road Railway Overpass was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 May 2004 having satisfied the following criteria.

Because Ipswich was a river port and the majority of components for the railway were delivered by ship from Britain, the line connecting the government wharf with the workshops, where assembly took place, was laid first and was an essential part of the construction strategy.

The plans for the substantial masonry abutments that carried the road connecting with the rail and road bridge over the Bremer River over this line survive and are evidence for the importance accorded to this overpass and to the inauguration of the transport network essential to develop the colony.