Development

Railway passengers crossing Rooper’s Bridge on Fitzroy River on 60 flat wagons, c1900. Well dressed women and men carry their own luggage. Cossar-Smith Album, Fryer Library, University of Queensland

Collection of the Fryer Library, University of Queensland

Flat wagons set up as a temporary bridge between Milton and Toowong, c1900. Passengers from a train and local residents could walk across these wagons and planks to connect with a train waiting on the other side. There are passengers on the far bank ready to make the crossing. QR Historical Collection/The Workshops Rail Museum

QR Historical Collection/The Workshops Rail Museum

The Townsville Mail ploughs through floodwaters covering the rails on the Burdekin River Bridge on the 21 March 1936. Passengers in the coaches lean out of the windows to get a good view. QR Historical Collection/The Workshops Rail Museum

QR Historical Collection/The Workshops Rail Museum

Crossing the Burdekin by boat, 1927. Passengers from a mail train are being rowed out to another train waiting on the Burdekin River Bridge.

QR Historical Collection/The Workshops Rail Museum

Droughts and floods and rail

Survival in Queensland during climatic extremes has often relied on the rail network.

Headquarters and signals room of Emergency Civil Defence Services, Green Street, West End (Townsville), set up in 1972 after Cyclone Althea struck in December 1971. Slides by Lynne Clancy, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Damage from Cyclone Althea at 29 & 31 Somer Street, Hyde Park, Townsville, 24 December 1971. Photographs from inside and outside the houses. The coke-stove chimney had blown in at 31 Somer Street. Slides by Lynne Clancy, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Damage caused by Cyclone Ada, Collinsville, 1970. Damage was caused to the pumping station that supplied water from Bowen River to the town of Collinsville and the power station; an 'underground' pipe at the power station; and left debris on top of the pump well almost obscuring the 33000 volt transformers. Slides by Peter Petersen, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Damage caused by Cyclone Althea to beach facilities at Pallarenda, 1971. Slide by John Donohue, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Scenes after the Townsville cyclone, 1940. Damage occurred to the sea baths, the CWA bathing enclosure, sea wall, city baths, Estate Picture Theatre in Railway Estate, a figtree in North Ward, the rotunda in Stand Park and a cottage at the mouth of the Ross River. Photographs from North Queensland Register, 24 February 1940. Collection of John Young

Collection of John Young