The Sunlander train bound for Cairns at the Townsville Railway Station, 1972. Slide by Ruth Read, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland.

Copyright Ruth Read and the Centre for the Government of Queensland, 2010

The Ipswich to Bowen Hills 8.30 am express train with diesel engine and wooden carriages arrives at Chelmer Station, Brisbane in 1972. Electrification of the Brisbane suburban train network began in 1979, with the last diesel passenger train running in 1999. Slide by Laurel Murdoch, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland.

Copyright Laurel Murdoch and the Centre for the Government of Queensland

The 8.30am express train from Ipswich to Bowen Hills arrives at the Brisbane southern suburb Chelmer Station in 1972. The train has a diesel engine and wooden carriages. Slide by Laurel Murdoch, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland.

Copyright Laurel Murdoch and the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Interior of the parlour car of the Southern Mail train. First Class passengers could reserve the chairs in the parlour car for five shillings. Advertisement from Queensland Railways, Hand book, 1912. Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland. 

Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Travel between towns and districts was slow and difficult when Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859.

There is often no road and the coach is taken at random through the forest… But the great miracle is the sudden pinches, looking as if they were almost perpendicular, do

The popular national travel magazine Walkabout (current 1934-74, 1978), produced by the Australian National Travel Association in Melbourne, contained many stories on Queensland.

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