Rail expansion was all the rage at the turn of the 20th century for northern Australia

Plans for the expansion of the state’s rail network were being made as early as 1905, when the Register reported that the authorisation of the railway from Richmond to Cloncurry had raised the question of the position of the line from Normanton to Cloncurry.

Apparently a company called the Normanton and Cloncurry Railway and Copper Mines had obtained permission to construct the spur and depositing 10,000 pounds with the government, to be returned when it had laid 150 miles.

According to the article, the company had begun litigation with the government, saying that the details of the legislation weren’t the same as what they had agreed upon.

By 1915, the push was on to build the transcontinental vision proposed by Premier William Kidston in 1910 and an article with a map of the trackwork pattern criss-crossing Queensland was published.

Readers were given an update on progress but even the writer was uncertain as to the final design, and the mapmaker seems unsure as to the location of a few places.

“The connecting link from Charleville to Tobermory has been opened for traffic to Cheepie, about a third of the way,” says the article.

“The proposed line from Tobermory north to Camooweal is not even surveyed.

“At Winton a commencement has been made on the 220 miles or so to Springvale.”

The author conjectures on the ways in which the rail network in Queensland could connect up with the Northern Territory’s infrastructure, in a direct, pithy statement.

“The direction of the branch from the Northern Territory line to couple up with Queensland will depend on the nature of the country, and the political interests of Federal politicians,” readers are told.

Much of the debate was about the quality of the country potential routes were going through, and whether certain areas would generate enough livestock revenue for any railway.

A connection from Katherine to Anthony’s Lagoon and on to Camooweal was pushed aside for its “rather poor country”, whereas other alternatives were longer and would cost more, a perennial issue for rural nation-builders. 

The article is ironic to read today, when a check of a modern map reveals that western Queensland is a ghost town as far as rail is concerned, and virtually none of the Kidston vision was achieved.