Pettigrew's Cooloola Timber Tramway Complex

Remnants of Queensland’s earliest private tramway, built by William Pettigrew in the 1860s, are located within the Cooloola National Park, north-east of Gympie. Pettigrew built his first sawmill in Brisbane in 1853 and with his new partner William Sim established a second mill on the Mary River, Maryborough, in 1863. Pettigrew’s 1865 discovery of Kauri pine in the Woolann area of north Cooloola provided the main source of timber for the Maryborough sawmill. Timber in this sandy region was difficult to extract using traditional bullock teams. In 1872, Pettigrew and Sim surveyed a route for a tramway from Thannae Scrub to Cooloola Creek, with a terminus at Tin Can Bay. The tramway opened on 30 October 1873. Sadly, Sim was killed by a falling log soon after. Undeterred, Pettigrew continued timber-getting with Sim’s sons and extended the tramway inland into Broutha Scrub; to a new coastal terminus at Poverty Point. The railway complex can still be identified by the cuttings and embankments, Seary’s Creek rafting ground and corduroy crossing, timber skids at Poverty Point, the steam engine site at Broutha Scrub and a timber bridge at Cooloola Creek. Four-wheel-drive access to the sites requires a permit from Queensland National Parks.