Webinar, 1-2 pm AEST

Overview

This webinar will provide the history of the Southern and Western Railway of Queensland which runs from the town of Ipswich to Toowoomba, a distance of 78 miles, and divided into two branches, one running to Dalby, a distance of 52 miles, and the other to Warwick, a distance of 62 miles, making a total of 192 miles.

The ascent of the Main Range from Murphy’s Creek to Toowoomba made this one of the most difficult sections to engineer. It involved steep gradients, numerous rocking cuttings, and 11 tunnels—also in rock—which had to be lined with brickwork, and of which one is 27 chains in length.

Engineers also faced challenges of twenty iron bridges, with lattice girders, 12 feet apart from centre to centre, and in spans varying from 60 feet to 100 feet, with an amount of waterway almost unparalleled on a similar length of line.

Speaker

Greg Hallam
Historian Queensland rail

Greg Hallam has been with Queensland Rail since 2000. He is a third-generation member of the Queensland railways, with a grandfather commencing as a locomotive cleaner in Bundaberg in 1911. Greg is a postgraduate student of the University of Queensland and is a member of the Professional Historians Association of Queensland. Having been active professionally in the community history and cultural heritage field, his working career has also included being the Queensland Heritage Registrar with the former Department of Environment and Heritage. He has also been published in several journals, such as Queensland History.