transportation

There's a fantastic video on Youtube showing the construction of this bridge. I think it was made by the firm building it. It's full colour and well worth looking for. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozQ9C854ZLA

In 1860, three cameleers and approximately twenty camels sailed from Karachi to Melbourne to accompany the Burke and Wills expedition. Between 1870 – 1920, entrepreneurs, realising that camels could cope with conditions inhospitable to horses and bullocks, imported approximately 20,000 camels, accompanied by 2000 – 4000 cameleers. These camels were swiftly put to work and, from the 1870s to the 1940s, camel trains carried goods between towns, homesteads, mining camps, and railheads. While the cameleers were widely referred to as ‘Afghans’ or ‘Ghans’, the majority were from what is now India and Pakistan, with a smaller subset being from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, or Egypt. A subset of cameleers became successful businessmen. In 1905, Abdul Wade, the founder of Australia’s largest camel operation the Bourke Carrying Company, possessed 600 – 700 camels and was sometimes referred to as ‘the Afghan King’ or ‘Prince of the Afghans’. Wade was active in Queensland, being employed to transport coke to and ore from the mine and smelter site at Mount Garnett and from OK to Mungana. Cameleers were not encouraged to stay permanently. They were generally employed on three-year contracts and, until the 1920s, were not permitted to bring their wives or children to Australia. Widespread racism presented an additional obstacle, with members of the European population expressing concern that cameleers would serve as a source of cheap labour, spread Islam, and marry European women. Cameleers generally lived separately to the bulk of the population, with cameleers’ camps composed of huts and small houses (often referred to as ‘Ghantowns’) being established on the outskirts of towns and ports. Cloncurry, which was site of Queensland’s largest Ghantown, was home to 200 cameleers and 2000 camels. he Roads Act 1902 introduced a camel tax, which restricted the ability of cameleers to travel and trade interstate. Finally, The Naturalisation Act 1903 prevented residents of Asian, African, or Pacific Islander origin from obtaining citizenship. While this increasingly hostile environment prompted many ‘Afghan’ cameleers to leave Australia, it was technology and infrastructure which put an end to the camel trains. By the 1940s, they had been rendered obsolete by an increasingly extensive and interconnected rail and road network. Source: queenslandhistory.org/2020/01/camel-trains-in-queensland/

The Imperial Hotel Motel in Quilpie is the baby of the Quilpie Shire pubs. The original Imperial hotel was built in 1925 and was a grand old 2 storey building – the first in Quilpie in fact. It was also the first building in Quilpie to have electricity as it had a generator. Sadly in January 1992 a large part of Quilpie’s history was lost when the Imperial burnt down. But in true Outback style the town wasn’t without its beloved watering hole for too long as it was rebuilt by August that same year as the one-story brick building it is today. Source: www.visitquilpieshire.com/news/unique-and-quirky-pubs-of-...

One of the sugar cane train's locomotive was Invicta (Leeds Fowler 0-6-2T) Purchased new in 1907 for the Invicta Sugar Mill, it spent all its working life in Sugar Mills in the Bundaberg area. Restored and returned to service with ASCR in November 2008, currently under complete restoration again. The loco was purchased by Mr Buss of the Invicta Sugar Mill, then located near the Kolan River. At the end of 1918 the mill was sold and moved to Giru in North Queensland, while the rolling stock was sold to Gibson and Howes (Bingera). When Invicta Sugar Mill was dismantled in 1918, Invicta was used to marshal the sugar cane from the Invicta area to Ralphs Siding where other locomotives transported the Sugar Cane to Bingera Sugar Mill. Invicta worked in the Bingera area until the early 1960s when it was sold to Millaquin Sugar Company during the sugar industry expansion program, to work at Qunaba Sugar Mill. Invicta was retired in 1978 before the steam era ended. In 1981 it was donated to the HMAS Nirimba Navy Training College at Quakers Hill Sydney. In July 1993 BSTPS made a submission to the Australian Navy for the return of Invicta to Bundaberg. The locomotive was returned and an official handover took place on 20th November 1993. The loco was dry stored until restoration started in 2003. A team of 20 members worked over four years to complete the restoration, with most of the work undertaken by the members themselves Invicta was recommissioned 17 November 2007 with a 100th birthday celebration attended by roughly 200 members and guests. Source: www.bundabergcanetrains.org.au/history/

City's oldest mill to close THE 123-year history of Fairymead Mill has come to an end, with Isis Central Sugar Mill and the state government blamed for its closure. THE 123-year history of Fairymead Mill has come to an end, with Isis Central Sugar Mill and the state government blamed for its closure. Bundaberg Sugar general manager Grant Maclean, who started at Fairymead himself in 1967, said the mill had "a lot of wonderful history''. Hundreds of workers have been employed at the mill since it was established in 1882 and at least 80 people will lose their jobs following yesterday's announcement. "Closing the mill is not something we wanted to do, but when the cane supply went down we had no option,'' Mr Maclean said. Source: www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/bundaberg/citys-ol...