Cairns Railway, Section from Redlynch to Crooked Creek Bridge

This rail line, best known as the Kuranda Scenic Railway, is part of a line to the tin mining town of Herberton, built between 1887 and 1891. Its ascends the coastal range and travels around the Stoney Creek Gorge and through the Barron Gorge to a height of 328 meters at the Barron Falls Station and onwards to Kuranda. The railway contains the largest collection of late nineteenth century tunnels and timber and metal span bridges of any other section of railway in Queensland of comparable length. Stoney Creek Bridge and the 1913 Federation style Kuranda railway station are two of the most photographed places in Queensland. The station is tucked into the rainforest, regaled with potted ferns and surrounded by landscaped gardens, which won competitions as early as 1915. Its design, evoking a Swiss Chalet, was chosen to promote tourism in the Cairns Region at a time when the city was only accessible by coastal steamers. The completion of the coastal railway to Brisbane in 1924 and the sealing of the Bruce Highway in the 1960s contributed to the growth in tourism. Kuranda now links with the ‘Skyrail’ cable car, taking visitors back down the mountain.