Cooloola Tramway

About

The Cooloola Tramway is a heritage-listed tramway at Great Sandy National Park, Cooloola Recreation Area, Cooloola, Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 1870s it was known as the Kaloola Railway. It is also known as Cooloola Railway, SEQ-5N 22, Pettigrew's Railway, and Pettigrew's Tramway. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 July 2013.

William Pettigrew 's Cooloola timber operation began in the 1860s with the extraction of timber from Woolann (the area around Lake Poona ). Bullock teams were used to drag Kauri pine logs to the mouth of Seary's Creek. The sandy nature of the terrain and lack of feed for horses and bullocks made traditional forms of timber transport unfeasible and Pettigrew had to find a solution to access the rich timber of inland Cooloola. The answer was the construction of a tramway: Cooloola Tramway opening in October 1873 as Queensland's first major private railway.

Of all Queensland's natural resources "timber was the most visible and abundant to the first Europeans". Early European accounts of Queensland frequently refer to the extensive stands of timber which lined the coast and river banks. In south-east Queensland the dominant timber species were softwoods such as Hoop ( Araucaria cunninghamii ) and Kauri pine ( Agathis robusta ). When Moreton Bay was opened up to free settlement in 1842 the colony did not have a sawmill and logged timber was either pit sawn and used locally, or sent south for milling and/or export.

The timber industry played a vital role in the economic development of Queensland and William Pettigrew was instrumental in this process. He was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1825 and came to Moreton Bay in 1849 as one of Dr John Dunmore Lang 's immigrants on board the Fortitude. Pettigrew was engaged as a surveyor and land agent by Lang. When Lang's immigration scheme collapsed, Pettigrew worked with Assistant Government Surveyor, James Warner. In this role he gained "first-hand knowledge of the local timber resources and the need for a sawmill to facilitate the expansion following the transformation of Brisbane from convict settlement to free society".

In 1853 Pettigrew established Queensland's first steam sawmill on land adjacent to the Brisbane River, at the western corner of William and Margaret streets in Brisbane. According to Kerr, Pettigrew's sawmill was arguably Queensland's first major industrial enterprise. With the establishment of this sawmill, Brisbane became the key local market for timber. William Sim, an experienced timber worker from Nairn, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, began working at the Brisbane Saw Mills in August 1854. With Sim in charge, the quality of product improved and production increased.

The first sawmill to be opened in Maryborough was Gladwell and Greathead's Union Sawmill in 1861, which established the city as a timber-getting town. Pettigrew was anxious to retain his monopoly in Queensland and began to explore the Maryborough area, looking for new sources of timber and a site for a sawmill to supply the northern ports of Gladstone, Rockhampton and Bowen. In August 1862, Pettigrew explored the Mary River with Tom Petrie and in October decided on the site for his sawmill - 10 miles (16 km) downriver from Maryborough. On Pettigrew's return to Brisbane, he established a partnership agreement with Sim, who paid £ 200 for a quarter share in the new firm of Pettigrew and Sim. The new sawmill was called Dundathu and began operating in August 1863.

The Maryborough timber industry industrialised and grew rapidly during the 1860s. In 1876 more timber (mainly sawn pine) was produced in Maryborough than had been exported from Queensland in the preceding 10 years. A number of firms were established including Wilson, Hart and Bartholomew; and James Fairlie. Despite early competition from Gladwell and Greathead's Union Sawmill, Dundathu Sawmill quickly proved profitable, shipping timber to Sydney, Gladstone, Rockhampton and Bowen.

Pettigrew continued to seek out timber resources which could be milled at Dundathu. In September 1863, he set off in the paddle steamer Gneering to search for stands of timber that were reported to exist in the Noosa area. On his return Pettigrew concluded that the timber was disappointing and inaccessible. However, others did not agree and by the end of 1863, timber-getters were operating in the lower Noosa area. Pettigrew turned his attention to the north, and in late June 1865 Pettigrew landed at the head of Tin Can Bay to examine the area further.

His discovery of Kauri pine in the Woolann area of north Cooloola provided the main source of timber for the Dundathu Sawmill. By 1865, Pettigrew's men were using bullock teams to drag Kauri pine logs from Woolann (the area around Lake Poona). Early timber-getters are recorded as using a corduroy crossing of tea-tree branches and saplings to cross the tidal flats in the northern Cooloola area. Pettigrew's men dragged the logs to the mouth of Seary's Creek, tied them into large rafts and towed them through the Tin Can Bay Inlet, Great Sandy Strait and up the Mary River. Tugs were then used to haul the rafts of timber to Dundathu.

The sandy nature of the terrain and lack of feed for horses and bullocks made the use of draught animals for transport very difficult. Pettigrew needed to develop a more expedient alternative. In July 1865 Pettigrew noted in his diary that 5.5 or 6 miles (8.9 or 9.7 km) of railway, the majority of which would cross flat, "barren" sandy country, would enable the timber to be taken out of inland Cooloola to Tin Can Bay. Pettigrew had previously written to Arthur Macalister -the Minister for Lands and Works-about a railway between his operations on the Maroochy and Mooloolah rivers, and was told that the government would not fund railways, and therefore they must be private. In 1863 Pettigrew had begun to experiment with horse-drawn wagons on timber tramlines in the yard of Dundathu and installed wooden-railed lines and turntables to transport the timber around the large sawmill.

By 1864 Pettigrew had become concerned that the "unbridled competition" permitted by the Timber Regulations was causing quarrels among timber-getters and encouraged over-cutting and waste. Pettigrew wrote to Macalister in April 1864, "setting out arguments for protecting timber-getters who made improvements such as roads for the extraction of timber, but could not then prevent others from using them". In response, Macalister introduced special timber licences in 1864 which gave their holders exclusive rights to cut and remove timber from specified areas where ordinary timber licences did not apply. The Crown Lands Alienation Act 1868 opened up the Noosa area for selection. By April 1869, Pettigrew was concerned that the new selection laws might override his Special Timber Licences and allow selectors to take over his Kauri pine forests in northern Cooloola. As a result, he sent Surveyor Byrne to survey his land at Woolann, which became Portions 1 and 2, Parish of Cooloola. On 3 May 1869, Pettigrew applied for the selections in the name of his partner William Sim. By this time, Pettigrew had lost the best timber at Noosa, the Kin Kin Creek timber, to merchants and sawmillers McGhie, Luya and Co who established the Elanda Point Sawmill.

The forests of Cooloola were physically difficult to exploit and remote from the settlements at Brisbane, Maryborough and Gympie, however, the extent and quality of the resource first attracted independent cutters and later sawmillers to the area. Sawmillers operating in the area included Wilson, Hart and Co. of Maryborough; Hyne and Son of Maryborough; Ramsay and Co. of Mungar, Ferguson and Co. of Gympie; and Dath, Henderson and Co. of Tewantin. However, the 2 firms that dominated the trade in Cooloola were Pettigrew and Sim at Tin Can Inlet in the north, and McGhie, Luya and Co. on the Noosa River in the south. After the Gympie gold rush of 1867, demand for timber increased exponentially and the timber industries of Maryborough and Cooloola boomed.

In October 1872, Pettigrew and Sim arrived at Cooloola and began surveying a route for a tramway. By this time their men were extracting timber from Thannae Scrub (located to the south of Woolann), and taking it out through Cooloola Creek. Pettigrew located a suitable terminus on Cooloola Creek and commenced surveying a tramway towards Thannae Scrub. Its construction was underway by January 1873. Pettigrew planned the technical details of the line and ordered materials, and Sim supervised the laying of the track. Sim contributed some of the funds for the tramway by purchasing a further quarter-share in Pettigrew and Sim for £ 3,750 in September 1871.

The locomotive for the tramway was built especially for the line by John Walker and Co of Maryborough. According to Pettigrew, it was "the first locomotive built in Queensland". The locomotive was named "Mary Ann" after the daughters of Sim and Pettigrew: Mary Ann Sim, born 21 February 1856, and Mary Ann Pettigrew, born 25 December 1865. The design of the engine was described as: "... a compact little affair, of peculiar make, the cylinder, boiler, and working parts being upright, not horizontal, as in most ordinary locomotives. The reason for this arrangement is found in the necessity for placing the wheels at as short a distance from each other as possible in order to admit of the locomotive working smoothly round the sharp curves that must necessarily occur on a line rudely laid down in an unsettled and often rough country".

The locomotive made a test run on wooden rails laid down Bowen Street on 30 June 1873. According to the Maryborough Chronicle "many of the inhabitants, both old and young, spent a pleasant hour in riding to and fro on the novel conveyance". Pettigrew was proud of their accomplishment and ordered 7 copies of a photograph of the engine, sending them with explanatory letters to: Governor Normanby, the Minister for Works ; the editor of The Courier ; politician Charles Lilley ; journalist Theophilus Parsons Pugh ; architect FGD Stanley and engineer John Sinclair. After the trials the "Mary Ann" was immediately shipped to Tin Can Bay.

In July 1873 Pettigrew joined Sim to inspect progress and try out the "Mary Ann" on the tramway. The rails were sawn at Maryborough, and taken by steamer to the tramway. The "Mary Ann" itself was used to saw the Cypress pine sleepers for the tramway as the line progressed. Pettigrew explained the process in his letter to the Governor dated 5 August 1873:

It is now at work preparing its line from Thannae to Tin Can Bay. On side of framing is seen a pulley. This is for driving a circular saw bench for cutting up the sleepers. The bench is mounted on two trucks, and is taken along the line as required...The country is barren sandy ground, and the line...is over pretty even ground, requiring no cutting or banking at least as far as yet made. Steepest gradient is about 1 in 18. Gauge 3 ft 3 in; rails are off spotted gum 4" x 3" but are found to be rather light for weight of engine which is about 6 tons. They are now being made of 4½" x 3". The cross sleepers are of Cypress pine 7" x 4½" and are notched to receive the rails, and are fastened together by wedges....The ends of the rails require to be bolted or pegged to sleepers but has not yet been done. We estimate that the engine will be able to bring 400 cubic feet of Dundathu pine logs at a trip and at a speed of from 6 to 8 miles per house. The two miles already laid has cost about £200 per mile.

The line was opened on 29 October 1873 after 3.5 miles (5.6 km) had been laid. An official opening and celebratory picnic hosted by the Sim family was held on 30 October with a number of Maryborough's leading citizens attending. Guests travelled up and down the line and were given a parbuckling demonstration (the lifting of timber onto the train). Pettigrew could not attend, but Sim told the gathering that "Mr Pettigrew was at one with him in all these works".

Pettigrew's tramway was Queensland's first major private railway. According to Kerr "the early adoption of tramways for hauling logs, and its influence on the development on the railways system in Queensland, centres on one man, William Pettigrew". The success of the Cooloola Tramway in drawing logs from inaccessible places and over difficult terrain encouraged other sawmillers to build light tramways. For example, in the mid-1870s McGhie, Luya and Co. constructed a tramway system across their property on Lake Cootharaba to their sawmill at Mill Point to overcome swampy, low-lying and poorly drained ground conditions. Pettigrew's influence on railways spread beyond the Cooloola area. In 1874 and 1879, he provided advice on the construction and use of tramways. He used his own tramway to demonstrate that a railway could be built for less than £ 1000 per mile; only a fraction of the cost of government railways, and critics began to condemn government extravagance. The fact that Pettigrew's and other private tramways were never designed to perform the haulage tasks required of government railways was not mentioned by the critics, however the cheap construction of the former did force a reduction in Government standards.

Less than 3 weeks after the opening of the Cooloola tramway, William Sim was killed. Sim and a man named Cooper were unloading a log 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter when the log fell off the truck before the men were ready and crushed Sim. Cooper was injured but not killed. According to the Maryborough Chronicle, William Sim was "one who has, in no small degree, contributed towards raising Maryborough to its present position of industrial and commercial prosperity". Pettigrew's close relationship with Sim is evident in a statement he made in 1900: "Till I got William Sim, nothing worth speaking of was done".