The Cooyar railway line was a

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

in the

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generall ...

region of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. The small town of Cooyar is about halfway to

Kingaroy Kingaroy is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is situated on the junction of the D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highways, north-west of the state capital Brisbane and south west of Gympie. As a ...

in the

South Burnett Region The South Burnett Region is a local government area in the South Burnett district of Queensland, Australia. Origins This Local Government was created in March 2008 as a result of the report of the Local Government Reform Commission released in ...

. A plan to connect Kingaroy to the south via Cooyar did not eventuate and left Cooyar at the terminus of a branch line running from

Oakey Oakey is a rural town and locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. The Museum of Army Aviation is located at Oakey Airport. Geography The town is situated on the eastern side of the Darling Downs and the Toowoomba Region lo ...

west of

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 C ...

. It was opened on 28 April 1913 after previous stages to

Kulpi Kulpi is a village and a gram panchayat within the jurisdiction of the Kulpi police station in the Kulpi CD block in the Diamond Harbour subdivision of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. History In the 18th ce ...

and Peranga opened on 29 April 1912 and 4 November 1912 respectively. The line was partially closed beyond

Acland Acland is an English surname. The Aclands of Devon (often Dyke Acland: see Acland baronets, Dyke Acland baronets) were an influential family, whose name was derived from Acland near Barnstaple. Notable people with the surname include: * Alexande ...

on 1 May 1964, with the last segment closed on 8 December 1969.''The Cooyar Branch Line'' Milne, Rod

Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin ''Australian Railway History'' is a monthly magazine covering railway history in Australia, published by the New South Wales Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society on behalf of its state and territory Divisions.Acland Acland is an English surname. The Aclands of Devon (often Dyke Acland: see Acland baronets, Dyke Acland baronets) were an influential family, whose name was derived from Acland near Barnstaple. Notable people with the surname include: * Alexande ...

, Peranga, Narko,

Nutgrove :''Alternate uses: Nutgrove, St Helens'' Nutgrove ( ga, Ceathrú an Notaigh) is an area in Churchtown, Dublin, Churchtown, County Dublin. It is a suburban area at the foot of the Dublin mountains between Churchtown, Dublin, Churchtown and Rat ...

, Wutul and Cooyar to the

Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...

western line at

until 1964. This provided passenger and farm produce services not only to these towns but also to the surrounding townships of Quinalow, Maclagan and

Evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

. Coal was transported between Acland and Oakey, this portion of the branch line remained in service until 1969. A similar parallel branch line existed connected Haden to the Western Line at

Kingsthorpe Kingsthorpe is a suburb and civil parish of Northampton, England. It is situated to the north of Northampton town centre and is served by the A508 and A5199 roads which join at Kingsthorpe's centre. The 2011 Census recorded the population of ...

from 1910 to 1964. As the competing service of

bullock cart A bullock cart or ox cart (sometimes called a bullock carriage when carrying people in particular) is a two-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen. It is a means of transportation used since ancient times in many parts of the world. The ...

s gave way to

motor vehicles A motor vehicle, also known as motorized vehicle or automotive vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on Track (rail transport), rails (such as trains or trams) and is used for the transportation of pe ...

rail patronage declined resulting in both services becoming uneconomical to maintain. With negligible track remaining the Oakey-Cooyar branch line could all but be overlooked as a fading scar on the landscape, it retains its significance however through the still intact

Muntapa Tunnel Muntapa Tunnel is a heritage-listed tunnel from Narko-Nutgrove Road, Highgrove through to Nutgrove, both in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Queensland Railways and built from 1910 to 1913 by Queensland Railways ...

. A feat of early

ways engineering achievement, the Muntapa Tunnel remains the only

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

in Queensland to pass under the summit of Eastern Australia's

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

. This tunnel was constructed with manual labour. It is now home to a colony of bats. The Oakey-Cooyer branch line is also of early surveying significance. Rail engineering practice of the period avoided the construction of tunnels, so significant surveying was undertaken to avoid tunnelling and to minimise rail

gradients In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gradi ...

. The largest gradient of a line mandates a larger, more expensive loco or a de-rating of carrying capacity, both of which would result in a less economical service for the line as a whole. The Oakey-Cooyar branch line was repeatedly surveyed to arrive at its built route, which had a negligible gradient over its length, but which required the 300m tunnel. The low gradient required a devious route, particularly at Narko and adjacent to the tunnel.

References

* *
Queensland Historical Legal Collection

External links

Tunnel location on Google Maps

1925 map of the Queensland railway system
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakey-Cooyar railway line Closed railway lines in Queensland Railway lines opened in 1913 Railway lines closed in 1969 Darling Downs 1913 establishments in Australia 1969 disestablishments in Australia