Advertisement

Blood, sweat and scenic views: The dramatic story of the Kuranda Railway

The railway links Cairns with Kuranda, rising from sea level to 1,100 feet - This content is subject to copyright.
The railway links Cairns with Kuranda, rising from sea level to 1,100 feet - This content is subject to copyright.

If the train had been a boat, it might have capsized. One minute every passenger was rushing to the left-hand side to snap the engine and the leading carriages crossing the trestles of the curving Stoney Creek Bridge, 90ft above the creek bed; the next, we were rushing to the right to snap water streaming down a cliff yards from the track at Stoney Creek Falls. 

We’d been following a tip-off from our carriage attendant – though it wasn’t that we’d been short of things to look at. The Kuranda Scenic Railway, which links Cairns, Queensland’s gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, and Kuranda, “the village in the rainforest”, lives up to its name.

It’s a trip of only 23 miles (37km), taking a couple of hours at most, but the line rises from sea level to nearly 1,100ft, snaking its way through the Barron Gorge National Park, and offering spectacular views back towards Cairns and the Coral Sea. 

Kuranda's rainforest, with views over Cairns in the distance - Credit: getty
Kuranda's rainforest, with views over Cairns in the distance Credit: getty

It was an astounding feat of construction in precipitous terrain, the builders dynamiting or digging their way through mountains, spanning gullies and precipices with bridges, and laying track through dense forest where landslides were a constant threat.

I was taking it from rainforest to coast, having begun my journey at Kuranda, a touristy but cheery place full of art galleries and shops selling handcrafted crocodile belts. I’d arrived from the air – in one of the green gondolas of the Skyrail, a cableway that starts at Smithfield, 15 minutes from the centre of Cairns, and loops its way for more than four-and-a-half miles (7.5km) over the treetops of the national park.

The white water of Stoney Creek Falls - Credit: istock
The white water of Stoney Creek Falls Credit: istock

I stopped off at the stations of Red Peak and Barron Falls (which offers views of the eponymous waters). At the former, one of the rangers who guides visitors along the boardwalk was spelling out for a group of children the good offices of the cassowary (“Some 50 to 70 species of tree rely on this bird for seed dispersal, so if it died out we could see trees die out too.”)

Workers built 15 tunnels, 55 bridges and more than 150 cuttings - Credit: GETTY
Workers built 15 tunnels, 55 bridges and more than 150 cuttings Credit: GETTY

How to describe Kuranda station? Imagine a cross between Kew Gardens and Thomas the Tank Engine’s Island of Sodor. Its platforms, flanking Swiss-chalet buildings under a red tin roof, are shaded by palms, lined with shelves of pot plants, festooned with hanging baskets. Signals are moved by hand levers, tickets dispensed from behind wrought-iron grilles, “Hot Beverages” and scones served from wood-panelled “Refreshment Rooms”. 

Kuranda, the village in the rainforest - Credit: istock
Kuranda, the village in the rainforest Credit: istock

A metal frame towards the end of one platform, covered in netting, houses a wheelbarrow and tools needed for all the weeding and feeding. The only detail the custodians of Kuranda don’t attend to is the apostrophe: beneath silhouettes of a man in a top hat and a woman in crinoline, signs point to “Mens” and “Ladies”.

'Some 50 to 70 species of tree rely on the cassowary for seed dispersal' - Credit: Getty
'Some 50 to 70 species of tree rely on the cassowary for seed dispersal' Credit: Getty

The locomotives are as smart as the station. The 1720-class diesel-electric engine hauling the one I took was painted with an exuberant image of Buda-ji, the carpet snake that in Aboriginal legend is said to have carved out the gorge. Carriages of silky oak, dating from the 1900s, have red leather benches in “Heritage Class”, armchairs in “Gold Class” and no-nonsense Aussie service in both.

“There you go, matey, that’s for you,” said the woman serving the nibbles of local cheese and nuts (accompanied by beer or wine) that were included in the price of my Gold Class ticket.

A commentary over the PA system told us that the line had been built between 1886 and 1891 to link gold and tin mines to the coast. At one stage, there were 1,500 men working on it, most of them Italian and Irish. They built 15 tunnels, 55 bridges and more than 150 cuttings. They not only had to dig with pick and shovel; they had to supply their own picks and their own shovels. When the governor of Queensland visited Stoney Creek while the work was continuing, a banquet was laid out for him and his guests on the bridge – but they were spared speeches because of the roar from the waterfalls.

The navvies weren’t spared: many died in accidents or through disease in insanitary camps along the line. As our train approached Freshwater, the station before Cairns, we passed a modern-day building site with three or four giant earth-movers: the Kuranda Railway would have been easier with a few of those.

The line was built between 1886 and 1891 to link gold and tin mines to the coast - Credit: getty
The line was built between 1886 and 1891 to link gold and tin mines to the coast Credit: getty

The essentials

Michael Kerr’s trip on the Kuranda Scenic Railway (ksr.com.au) and Skyrail (skyrail.com.au) and his stay in Cairns were organised by the Ultimate Travel Company (020 7386 4646; theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk) which provides a wide variety of tailor-made trips to Australia and New Zealand. He stayed at the Shangri-La Cairns (shangri-la.com/cairns); double rooms from about £150.