Rail Trail Appreciation Society

Continuing on from a BNA thread, this is for discussion of rail trails, wherever they might be.

I drove 450km to a working bee on the Boyne Burnett Inland Rail Trail back in 2021, expecting there’d be half a dozen or so people turning up to such a remote area (roughly an hour north-east of Monto). Turned out there were more than 30, and they and all the other locals were 100% behind the trail. That plus the spectacular scenery was enough to convince me to buy a 1/4 acre block right on the trail in the tiny village of Builyan for an eye-watering $27,500 :open_mouth: After one very uncomfortable night in a tent I built a hut out of a rusty 6x4 trailer and some pallet timber, then eventually replaced that with a 3m long tiny house for a weekender.

Fast forward a few years, and the trail group BBIRT Inc are storming ahead with opening more sections of the trail and getting bridges decked and railed. This one is over Deception Creek just outside the even tinier village of Many Peaks (which is a handful of houses and a cracking pub currently owned by the patron saint of the trail Desley O’Grady).

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very fond memories of ripping around kalpower on a dirtbike but I’d love to revisit and ride some of the rail trail (folks are in rocky). one day

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Thanks for setting up the thread, always enjoyed reading the posts on this topic

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Another glorious day on the North Coast (NSW) Rail Trail today !
Obviously the Rail Trail experience is enhanced by great weather !

Other factors enhance the experience.

Like finding a nice place to eat food and drink coffee/ beer / wine etc. In moderation i hope.

Also a nice bike enhances the experience but truth is, the Rail Trail that I can use (Murwillumbah section of the NRRT) is relatively manicured and you don’t need fancy gears, huge tyres, lightweight frames etc.

a comfortable saddle, reasonably good brakes and a comfortable hand position are essential.

A bell and a light is a good idea.

The Rail Trail can be quite a social experience. This morning I struck up a conversation with a number of people who were out on the Trail.

Sometimes you “bump into” friends, neighbours, cycling buddies etc but this morning I got talking to a number of mature age people who were visiting the region. All Queenslanders!

A couple from Cairns, a couple from the Sunshine Coast, and a bloke from Toowoomba.

Overall it’s just simply a wonderful way to get out on whatever is your favourite bike.

Except best to avoid fine weather weekends and public holidays, if possible.

Because weekends it gets a bit hectic, especially between 9am and 2pm !

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Happy as to be out on the gravel today.

A few notable features in this pic :

The Tunnel is a long one, at 524 metres.

It was built in 1894, to enable a (steam) train to carry produce from the Riverport at Murwillumbah to the seaport at Byron Bay, a distance of 50 km.

As you can imagine, there were no decent roads and absolutely no cars or trucks in those days !

The only realistic transportation options were to use ocean-going boats, or to build a Railway !

As you can imagine, the end of the 19th Century was a period of widespread and intense Railway construction in various parts of Australia.

The Railway of course was an engineering masterpiece, with a number of tunnels and many bridges between Murwillumbah and Byron Bay.

Then finally 20 years later Byron Bay was linked to Sydney with the construction of more railway line through to Lismore, Casino and Grafton (but there was no bridge over the big river at Grafton so the journey to Sydney necessitated a transfer to a ferry boat across river until the 1930’s :flushed_face:)

After the 2nd World War, the relevance of the Railway started to diminish.

Roads were built and sealed, people started to use cars, trucks and motorcycles.

By the 1970’s, the 132 km of railway line between Murwillumbah / Byron Bay/ Lismore/ Casino was on borrowed time. Most freight went by road and there were only 2 passenger services per day.

The last passenger service ran in early 2004.

Now it is a Railtrail, but unfortunately not the full 132 km corridor, only the first 24 km and the last 30 km.

Only in Australia would you find such a curious counterintuitive disconnect, an abandoned Railway corridor of which only the first part and the last part have been turned into a community asset !

But it is a magnificent community asset, especially the “northernmost” part, between Murwillumbah and Mooball, a distance of almost 24 km completed Railtrail.

It was constructed by Tweed Shire Council, assisted by the NSW State Government in 2022.

It’s an all-weather trail, except for 2 low level crossings which are covered with freshwater only after very large rains.

As you can see in the photo, it is easily negotiated with a Singlespeed bicycle.

But skinny tyres are best substituted for something a bit wider. I am running 700x28/32 on the Shogun as pictured.

Any other considerations ?

Because the Trail is heavily used, it’s best to avoid weekend mornings and Public holidays !

There are plenty of cafes and a few hotels along the Trail, but some are not open on Mondays or Tuesdays.
The Trail has plenty of tree cover, which makes it cooler in Summer and warmer in Winter.
A bell IS a good idea, as is a LIGHT, because the tunnel is VERY dark !

What more is there to know ?

Probably lots of things, best discovered by visiting the area.

DO NOT WORRY ABOUT MAGPIES OR SNAKES !

There are plenty of them, but unlike some other places in Australia, they are rarely aggressive !

Road access : Murwillumbah is 800km north of Sydney and 30 km south of the Gold Coast Airport.

It is technically in NSW, but many people get a wee bit confused think it’s in Queensland because it is close to Brisbane and the Gold Coast :grinning_face:

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I saw there were nimbys ranting about the gympie rail trail on the news I think it was Tuesday night

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Been travelling to Leongatha, Vic semi-regularly for work. Been eyeing off the Great Southern Rail Trail from Nyora to Yarram/Port Albert, about 130k’s all up. Anyone done it?

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Had not heard of it. Looks great. :ok_hand:

Have done sections of it. Is good.

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I’ll try to avoid going into a full on rant :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

So since the Mary Valley Rattler resumed operations in 2018 it runs only between Gympie and Amamoor. A low timber road bridge just the other side of the Kandanga station was hit by a truck and subsequently demolished in 2019. At that point it was clear the train would never go past Kandanga to Imbil again. I’ve heard there are other bridges between Amamoor and Imbil that aren’t serviceable but I don’t have details on them. The rails between Amamoor and Imbil have been removed and the corridor is rapidly getting very overgrown.

The rail trail currently goes from Imbil to Brooloo, a section which the Rattler has never used. The proposals for which Gympie Council conducted a feasibility study last year are to extend the trail to either Kandanga or Amamoor. Neither proposal would have ANY effect on the continued operation of the Rattler. If anything it is a golden opportunity for the Rattler to provide a steam shuttle service between Gympie and the trailhead.

The Rattler general manager was on 7 news this week suggesting the trail extension would stop the Rattler from running and let’s be honest, that’s a flat out lie.

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I share your frustration Lachlan !

As you say, if the Rail Trail was extended to the southern terminus of the the Mary Valley Rattler (ie Amamoor), it would be a very good thing.

  1. The Railtrail would be a lot longer, like all of a sudden it would be like 20km, not just the trivial little 5 km that it appears to be. Regional visitors generally won’t travel for the “experience” of a 5 km Railtrail, but 20 km is much more likely to motivate visitors!
  2. It would enhance the commercial viability of the Mary Valley Rattler, because some people would then use it to access the Rail Trail, it would be a complementary recreational experience, especially for regional visitors. My understanding is that the Mary Valley Rattler exists on a precarious financial base, and heavily relies on regional visitors and government grants to continue to operate.
  3. So as they say, it would likely be a win-win situation for the Steam train (Mary Valley Rattler) and the Rail Trail to be linked up, it would draw increased visitors and make the Rattler more financially viable I hope.

Tis strange isn’t it. Cycling and Walking enthusiasts actually love railway services, especially if we can use them to get to interesting places !
Where we differ from some of the Railway tragics is common sense and arithmetic.

We can see that the cost of converting a defunct railway corridor to a Rail Trail is usually roughly 1 Million $ per kilometre.

The cost of rebuilding an old defunct Railway line is usually roughly 500 TIMES that. !!!

But what scares the state governments EVEN MORE than that is the daily OPERATING COST of a passenger railway line :scream: -especially when that cost is divided by the number of people that use it.

Bureaucrats do not want case studies of their poor transport infrastructure spend outcomes in Economics 101 classrooms all over the world !

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