The Port Hedland-Marble Bar Railway Act 1907, an act by the Parliament of Western Australia assented to on 19 September 1907, authorised the construction of the railway line from Port Hedland to Marble Bar.

Construction was commenced in 1909, undertaken by the firm of Henry Teesdale Smith, and the line was opened in July 1911.

[4][5] The closest railhead of the main WAGR rail system was over 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) to the south at Meekatharra so most rolling stock and materials were shipped in and out Port Hedland.

Due to heavy losses on the line, the Western Australian government asked 1922 Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Railway Department to make a specific inquiry into the running of the Port Hedland railway.

The reputation of the line for its slow running speed lived on long after the railway had closed, with Patsy Adam Smith's 1969 book about early railways noting the use of the ironic name the Spinifex Flyer.