Tall Timber and Tramlines Queensland (by John Kerr)

This book describes all the Queensland timber tramways known to the author when the manuscript was released for publication in 2005.
For climatic and other reasons Queensland had fewer timber tramways than most other Australian states. As a result it is possible in this book of 100 pages to mention all of those known to exist when the manuscript was prepared. All were closed by the end of the 1930s.

They ranged from the engagingly primitive to the well engineered Laheys' Canungra Tramway.

The author, the late John Kerr, was well qualified to write this history. In 1998 he completed the Forest Industry Heritage Places Study, Sawmills and Tramways, South Eastern Queensland, for the Queensland Department of Environment. This was a detailed study of archaeological remains of timber industry activities in south-east Queensland.

John Kerr was a consultant statistician with the CSIRO, but became an active historian, specialising in railways, and the sugar, mining and timber industries of Queensland. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland and of the Federation of Historical Societies, a Founder of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland), and was the author of many books on Queensland history.

CONTENTS

Glossary 4
Introduction 5
1. The pioneering Pettigrew 7
2. Tramways of the 1870s 15
3. The role of Government Railways 29
4. Lahey Brothers Canungra Tramway 39
5. Munro’s Hampton – Perseverance Tramway 51
6. Fraser Island tramways 57
7. Tramways in the Brisbane Valley 67
8. From sawmill to market 79
9. Tropical tramways 89
References 99
Bibliography 100
Index 101