Travel Australia

Muntapa Tunnel, Maclagan, Qld

When in Maclagan, close by you can visit the Rimfire Winery and the Rangemore Estate Cellar Door, or drive east to walk through the disused Muntapa railway tunnel. The tunnel is signposted off the road between Cooyar to Kulpi and Acland (which is off the New England Highway). 15km south of Cooyar, it is Queensland’s longest straight railway tunnel (287m). It is also quite high being 640m above sea level. Now that trains don't roar through it the tunnel is a seasonal home to a colony of bent winged bats and the main feature on a walking trail. You can walk through the tunnel- a torch is a neccessity. This tunnel was on the branch line that was opened from Oakey to Cooyar in 1913 and was closed in 1964.

The Muntapa Tunnel is a former railway tunnel set in isolated bushland about 40 kilometres north of Oakey. The tunnel is located in a deep cutting along which the former railway line from Oakey to Cooyar ran. The tunnel is semi-elliptical in cross-section. It is around 280 metres in length running from north east to south west. A section of cliff around each entrance is faced with a concrete wall which is topped with a shallow projecting ledge. The year "1912" had been embossed above the entrance at the south western end. However this has heavily worn so that only "912" remains visible. A steel gate of about 2 metres in height encloses the north eastern entrance.



The interior of the tunnel is formed from concrete. Away from the entrance, this has become blackened. The floor is sandy, except towards the middle of the tunnel where the base becomes coarse gravel.

The entrances to the tunnel are approached at both ends via a cutting. At the north eastern end, the cutting extends about 38 metres from the entrance. At the south western end, it curves towards the south and extends about 150 metres. The floor of each cutting is level and approximately 5 metres wide. A 22-metre-long concrete wall extends along the eastern side of the cutting beginning about 31 metres from the south western entrance.

The tunnel penetrates the ridge which forms the summit of the Great Dividing Range. The terrain is rocky and sparsely vegetated, comprising open eucalypt woodland.