Charters Towers railway station

Charters Towers

Looking across the railway from the Phoebe mine to the town centre in 1904
Location New Queen Road, Charters Towers
Owned by Queensland Rail
Operated by Traveltrain
Line(s) Great Northern
Platforms 1
Tracks 2
Construction
Structure type Ground
Disabled access Yes
History
Opened December 1882
Rebuilt 1983
Services
Preceding station   Queensland Rail   Following station
Terminus
The Inlander
toward Mount Isa

Charters Towers is a railway station on the Great Northern line at Charters Towers, 134 kilometres (83 mi) west of Townsville in North Queensland, Australia.

History

The line arrived at Charters Towers in December 1882[1] and eventually extended west to the city of Mount Isa in 1929.[2] The line was built initially to connect Charters Towers with the Port of Townsville. The spark was the discovery of gold that had taken place in January 1872. Seven years later the rise in gold returns convinced the government to connect the centre to the coast with a more reliable transport conduit. The station was built at Queenton, midway between the two population centres of Charters Towers and[Millchester.[3] This was in a part to appease both townships and for practical purposes given the country here was flat. The station was opened in December 1882 by Premier Thomas McIlwraith.[4]

The distance to the town put the onus on the more prominent hotels to 'meet the train' and transport travellers up Hospital Hill via Gill Street into the town centre. The station building was demolished in 1983 and replaced.

The station was photographed by Allom and Bailey in 1887. The first image shows the station at Queenton looking east while the other shows the crossing looking west towards Charters Towers.

The crossing remains in place and still creates traffic holdups.

Services

Charters Towers is served by Traveltrain's Inlander service.[5]

References

  1. ↑ World History Charters Towers Regional Council
  2. ↑ Mount Isa Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland
  3. ↑ Charters Towers Suburbs.Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland
  4. ↑ Diary of Events December 1882 Pugh's Almanac
  5. ↑ The Inlander timetable Queensland Rail 1 January 2015

Further reading

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, June 02, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.