Freshwater railway station is on the
Cairns-to-Kuranda railway line
The Cairns-to-Kuranda Railway is a heritage-listed railway line from the Cairns Region to the Shire of Mareeba, both in Queensland, Australia. It commences at Redlynch, a suburb of Cairns and travels up the Great Dividing Range to Kuranda wi ...
(part of the
Tablelands railway line) in
Queensland, Australia. It is located at Kamerunga Road,
Barron in
Cairns
Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...
(just across the boundary from the suburb of
Freshwater
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
).
Services
Although located in the suburb of Barron, it does not currently provide any commuter services. It is only used by
Kuranda Scenic Railway tourist service which stops at this station and approximately 60% of the annual 400,000 tourists board the scenic railway service at this station.
History
The Tablelands railway line was built to provide transport between the mines near
Herberton
Herberton is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Herberton had a population of 855 people.
Geography
Herberton is on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland. It is situa ...
and the
Cairns Port
Ports North, the trading name of the Far North Queensland Ports Corporation Limited, is a Queensland Government statutory corporation that is responsible for the Cairns Marlin Marina and the Cairns Cityport project and the ports in Cairns, Ca ...
. The contract for the first 8 miles from Cairns railway station to
Redlynch railway station (passing through Freshwater) was opened on 8 October 1887.
During the construction of the line, in March 1887, heavy rain caused the flooding of Freshwater Creek; at the point where the railway line crossed the creek, there was of water over the line. Shortly after the line was opened, further heavy rains damaged the approaches to the railway bridge over Freshwater Creek. Another of flooding occurred again at the Freshwater Creek crossing in January 1888.
When the railway line opened, there were a number of railway sidings along the line: Stratford (5 miles from Cairns), Lily Bank (6 miles from Cairns), and Richmond (7 miles from Cairns). Richmond Siding was renamed Freshwater Siding in January 1890. The development of the railway line had encouraged land developers to release land subdivision called Richmond Park Estate which was sold from 1886 with advertising featuring the forthcoming Richmond Park railway station and its ten minute rail journey to Cairns; this explains the original name of the siding.
In September 2018, a $4.8 million refurbishment was completed at Freshwater station. The work included extending the station platform to provide access to all 15 passager carriages on the Kuranda Scenic Rail service as well as improving bus and car parking facilities and additional facilities to assist disabled passengers.
References
External links
*
{{Queensland Rail railway stations, Kuranda=y, state=collapsed
Railway stations in Queensland
Transport in Cairns