Possible heritage listing for historic Cooloola tramway

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Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection
The Honourable Andrew Powell

Possible heritage listing for historic Cooloola tramway

The remains of Queensland's first major private tramway, built in Cooloola north of Noosa in the 1870s, are being surveyed by archaeologists and historians with a view to entering the place in the Queensland Heritage Register.

The complex, which was established by timber entrepreneur William Pettigrew, is located within the Great Sandy National Park and includes a jetty, tramway cuttings, loading ramps, log crossings and bullock roads constructed from the 1870s onwards.

Environment and Heritage Protection Minister Andrew Powell said it's an important part of Queensland's past.

"Nowadays, most of the remnants of the tramway are not easy to find, yet tell a very important story about Queensland's history," Mr Powell said.

"Heritage officers from the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) and rangers from the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) surveyed the Cooloola Section of Great Sandy National Park in early December 2012 looking for remnants of the tramway and jetty.

"Local historian Dr Elaine Brown and other volunteers joined the search to help assess whether the remnants were of state heritage significance.

"What the recent survey found is exciting, but so far no sleepers or rails have been identified. Being cypress pine and spotted gum, they were subject to termites, fires and other natural forces so may not have survived.

Mr Powell described William Pettigrew as Queensland's first and greatest timber entrepreneur.

"Large amounts of prized timbers including hoop pine, kauri pine, satinay and blackbutt were cut from the area to help build the town of Maryborough and the growing free settlement of Brisbane where Pettigrew was also later to serve as Mayor," he said.

"Timber was also sent to other areas of Australia that were opening up for mining or grazing.

"In the late 1890s Pettigrew and others spoke to the Queensland parliament about the need to conserve forests. This in turn helped establish the State Forests and National Parks Act and the Queensland Forest Service in 1906.

Gympie historian and expert on the history of the Cooloola coast, Dr Elaine Brown, said the tramway construction was a major engineering feat for its time.

"We are looking at early pioneering days here; Queensland's railway system was established only about eight years beforehand," Dr Brown said.

"William Pettigrew was a surveyor so he knew how to survey and construct the line which was more than 14 kilometres in length, a major undertaking for 1873.

"Pettigrew with his partner William Sim showed great foresight and initiative in constructing the tramway which was the solution for transporting timber logs from inaccessible places and over difficult terrain from the sandy Cooloola forests to the shores of Tin Can Inlet.

"From here the logs were made into rafts and floated to Pettigrew and Sim's Dundathu sawmill near Maryborough. Dundathu milled the softwood timber from places along the coast while a second mill, the Union, processed hardwoods.

"The Pettigrew-Sim milling operation was mainly concerned with kauri pine.

"Pettigrew championed the need for a tramway and commissioned the first steam locomotive built in Queensland, the 'Mary Ann,' to haul the logs.

"Although he championed railways in general, Pettigrew favoured light rail, which did not make him popular with the government of the day. He had to build his tramways at his own expense.

"The tramway and locomotive cut back the work needed from horse and bullock teams which found the soft sandy terrain and lack of feed in the area too harsh for the animals.

"In 1852, he also established Queensland's first steam powered sawmill in Brisbane," Dr Brown said.

Mr Powell said the tramway complex investigation was part of the EHP statewide survey designed to identify the state's important heritage places and ensure their future through entry in the Queensland Heritage Register.

"It will be up to the independent Queensland Heritage Council to decide if the place has the level of state significance to be entered in the Queensland Heritage Register," Mr Powell said.

[ENDS] 19 February 2013

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The Original Mary Ann was designed to haul Kauri Pine logs from the Cooloola forests to Tin Can Bay. The engine hauled trucks of logs on a wooden tramway, the sleepers and rails for which were milled with a circular saw driven by the engine. Three miles had been constructed when it was decided to hold an official opening on the 30th October 1873. The function was attended by important Maryborough people including the Mayor. A piper named Duncan played a part in the ceremony and he can be seen standing to the left on the engine.