Aramac Tramway Museum

About

Aramac Tramway Museum is a heritage-listed former tramway station and now a museum at Boundary Street, Aramac, Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1912 to 1913. It is also known as Aramac Tramway Station. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 26 November 1999.

The Aramac Tramway Museum is located within the Aramac Tramway Station. The Aramac Tramway was constructed in 1912–1913, funded by the Aramac Shire Council. It closed on 31 December 1975. When Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859, the new Queensland Government was quick to throw open land for grazing, and a great wave of pastoral settlement swept across western and northern Queensland in the early 1860s. The establishment of towns in the west soon followed, for example Tambo, Blackall and Aramac which developed as commercial centres to service the pastoral industry. Aramac Town Reserve was gazetted on 26 June 1869 and the first businesses were established in the town that same year. On 6 April 1880, local government commenced when the Aramac Divisional Board, established under the Divisional Boards Act 1879, held its first meeting in the Court House. Nineteenth century Queensland development was further influenced by the pattern of building railway lines west into the hinterlands from the major ports, first Main Line railway from near Brisbane in 1865, then the Central Western railway line from Rockhampton in 1867 and the Great Northern Railway from Townsville in 1880. The Central Western Line reached Barcaldine in 1886 and was extended to Longreach in 1892. These towns were founded when the railway arrived, and had the immediate effect of taking business away from the nearby well-established towns of Aramac and Blackall. Throughout Australia, the early twentieth century heralded a time of rapid railway expansion, and competition between towns for services was fierce. Aramac had first asked for a railway extension in 1896, without success. Ten years later, in 1906, a deputation of Aramac Councillors visited the Premier, William Kidston, seeking his support for the railway. It also failed. Despite these disappointing responses, the Aramac Shire Council (the successor to the Aramac Divisional Board) persevered with their plans. In 1908 Council asked the Queensland Treasury for a special loan of £1,375 to finance a survey of the route of the proposed line. With some reservation from the Railways Department, the Council was granted its survey loan, and employed George Phillips to peg out the route from Aramac to Barcaldine. When the survey was completed, Council moved in March 1906 to borrow £66,500 to build the tramway. The Railways Department responded by commissioning two reports on the best commercial link between the Central Western and Great Northern lines. The second of these recommended the shortest and least expensive method of connecting the lines was by the Longreach to Winton route, and the Railways Commissioner decided in favour of this route. Although it was to be another eighteen years before the Longreach-Winton line opened, the Aramac Shire Council committed itself to the courageous decision to construct a tramway for which the Council would be financially responsible. In March 1911, Treasury approval was given for a loan to Aramac Shire Council to build the Barcaldine-Aramac tramway. George Phillips was appointed Engineer in charge of construction. In June 1911 Council fixed the station site "at the Eastern End of Gordon Street about 100 yards before the bore drain". That point was to become the end of the track, where the locomotive shed was built; the station building was actually built about 200 metres (660 ft) to the south, near the end of McWhannell Street. Construction from the Central Western Line commenced at Lagoon Creek, 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the Barcaldine railway station, on 14 February 1912. The construction standard that Phillips adopted was the minimum acceptable to the Queensland Railways Commissioner; although the tramway belonged to the Council, it needed to conform to Queensland Railways specifications because government rolling stock would be using it. The line was to be 3 ft 6 in gauge, with very light 42-pound (19 kg) Moss Bay rails. For most of its length, the line had no ballast, with the sleepers simply laid on levelled earth. This was a technique Phillips had pioneered on the Croydon-Normanton railway (now the Gulflander), and while it was frowned on by most railway engineers, it was satisfactory under light loads on level going. As most of the route extended over open grassed plains, simply following the gentle rise and fall of the ground, there was very little earthwork to do. There were only about 12 bends on the line, one cutting and no embankments, and 24 wooden trestle bridges, most of them over small creeks. Because the route ran through grazing country, the whole line was stock-fenced. Only 6 miles (9.7 km) of line had been laid by April 1912. Unusually heavy rain on the blacksoil plains held up progress, and the workers struck for higher pay. The late delivery of sleepers was a constant problem throughout the project. In August the line reached the halfway point, and on 12 September the 21 miles (34 km) of track to Mildura siding were officially opened to traffic. These delays meant that construction expenses had been heavier than Phillip's estimates, and in November the money ran out. Council was forced to go to the Queensland Treasury for another loan of £10,000 to complete the work. The total cost of the completed tramway was £88,983, one third more than Phillips' estimate. By May 1913 the bridges over Aramac Creek were being built, and the tramway was approaching town. Final preparations were underway as the construction phase neared completion. The station buildings were being built by O'Brien and Company, and a contract was signed with Blair Athol Coal Company for the supply of coal. Phillips was to be kept on as Supervising Engineer after the line opened. The first locomotive to work the line was already in use during the construction work. It was an elderly Avonside Engine Company B12, built in 1877, which had spent many years in Queensland Railways service as Engine No 31 before being purchased by Aramac Shire Council to become Aramac Tramway Engine No 1. The official opening of the tramway took place on 2 July 1913. It was expected that the work would be completed by then, but unseasonal rain had again delayed construction, so the line was still a few hundred metres short of its objective. As the date had been chosen to coincide with the festivities of the annual race meeting, the opening went ahead regardless. The ceremony was held at the end of the completed line, which at that time was between the two channels of Aramac. The Honourable Walter Paget, Minister for Railways, performed the opening.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.