Fondly referred to as the old ‘tin hare’, the Gulflander is an award-winning service, which operates between Normanton and Croydon in Queensland's Gulf Country. A half-day journey, The Gulflander often stops for an impromptu morning tea supplied by the locals and for photo opportunities at Norman River Bridge.
Out on the Gulf the terrain is flat and harsh. The quietness is almost deafening and broken only by the squawk of a native bird or a wandering beast. An occasional ‘Willy-Willy’ disturbs the landscape but otherwise time almost stands still. Then, from the silence, a soft groan becomes louder and a distinctive clackety-clack heralds the arrival of the Gulflander – the Tin Hare.
A legend in these parts, the old Railmotor has traversed the never-connected line between Normanton and Croydon for decades. It was preceded from the turn of the previous century by other railmotors and an assortment of rolling stock all equally as charming as RM93.
A journey on the Gulflander is a tour back in time. To times when a padded seat was a luxury and roads were bullock tracks. To an era where gold was the currency and home was a canvas and sapling humpy. To a generation where children were born in the dust and education was the school of hard knocks.
Fortunately nowadays the trip is far less primitive but still retains the romance of those days gone by. That unforgettable shake, rattle n' roll as you cross the stark red plains is still there. Those sleepers and tracks embedded straight into the dirt continue to do what they’ve been doing for well over a hundred years. What hasn't changed are the diverse landscapes and ancient geological formations of the gulf country where cattle roam on large stations and gold was once the main source of income for many locals.
Normanton Station
In the 1870s and 1880s, private groups and individuals were promoting the concept of a transcontinental railway across western Queensland to the Gulf of Carpentaria. One of these concepts was for a private railway from Roma to Point Parker. This received the backing of the government of Sir Thomas McIlwraith, the then Premier of Queensland. Subsequently the land grant and privately built railway collapsed with the fall of his Government which would have served Cloncurry and the mineral fields of the district en route.
In 1885 a survey was undertaken for a railway between Cloncurry and Normanton, after a Glasgow based Cloncurry Copper Mining and Smelting Company decided to develop the Cloncurry mining field. The government decided to proceed with a railway from the port of Normanton, to Cloncurry and an order was placed for 160 kilometers of rail.
The first rail on the Normanton-Croydon railway was laid in 1888. To lower construction costs and to defeat the termites of the Gulf, specially patented steel sleepers were used, designed by QR Inspecting Surveyor George Phillips (1843-1921). From 1888 to 1891 Phillips supervised the construction of the Normanton-Croydon Railway. The chief assistant engineer was Archibald Smith Frew who later went on to construct the Almaden-Forsayth line. Less than four of the 151 kilometers were protected by side drains and only small amounts of ballast were used, despite the railway carrying normal rolling stock over what Frew described as some of the 'most flooded and rotten country in Australia'.
The initial train service was worked by steam train four days a week, being reduced after 1894 to three. Every three weeks the timetable was varied to coincide with the arrival of the mail steamer to the Port of Normanton. In the early twentieth century, Special trains were run for picnic events, race meetings and even a suburban service from Croydon to Golden Gate. The last steam train ran in 1929. Since 1930, the service has been exclusively run using railmotors.
The expense and difficulties of maintaining a steam service, combined with the closure of the Croydon goldfields, saw the Queensland Railways investigate cost saving measures.
In 1922, the first internal Combustion engine railmotor (RM14) arrived in Normanton. This was a converted Panhard Levassor road wagon.
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