Re: Uncompleted Railways

["John McCandless" <johnmc@topend.com.au>]

David Bromage <dbromage@omni.com.au> wrote in message
37D5E074.F9E19F99@omni.com.au">news:37D5E074.F9E19F99@omni.com.au...

> Normanton to Cloncurry. Diverted to Croydon when gold was discovered.

George Phillips (the builder of the Normanton-Croydon line) hedged his bets
when there were two possible destinations for the Normanton railway,
slightly
changing the proposed route for the Cloncurry railway, so that the first
13miles
of track would be the same, whether the line went to Cloncurry or Croydon.
In the end, Croydon won.
Not the first (or last) time Cloncurry has been screwed by the government in
Brisbane ;-)

> Croydon to Forsayth. Cancelled when the gold ran out.

The line to Croydon was opened in 1891, and the line to Forsayth opened
in 1910.  During this time, there was a proposal to extend the line from
Croydon to Georgetown, which was 40km north of the area where Forsayth
would later be.  The proposal was put before the Legislative Council twice,
and
was defeated both times (b****y politicians!!).

A Public Works Royal Commission endorsed a link between the two in 1929,
but nothing came of it.

> Normanton to Karumba. Ditto, I think.

As far as I can find out, there were several surveys out of Normanton to
potential ports, Karumba being one of them.  I don't think any of them
went past the survey stage...


> Was there supposed to be a line south from Cunnamulla meeting one west
> from Dirranbandi?

Not that I know of.  The Dirranbandi line was also referred to as "The
Border Fence",
and was quite useful in diverting trade from Northern NSW to Brisbane.
The game has been played to this day, with the latest instalment being the
proposed line
from Goondiwindi to North Star...



> Cheers
> David