Kirb's Line: Karumba and Normanton

Hi Everyone,
Well it's taken a while to get around to this post, we have been very busy with work commitments and all is going very well at the moment. Next will see me on a train for the first time as a qualified second person(official name), I will do this for approximately four months and then it's back to the classroom again. We did a trip to the gulf in January, I had a rostered four day weekend and we decided to head up to Karumba for a few days. The weather was still steamy hot and we decided not to take the camper trailer because it would be to uncomfortable in the heat, we decided we would stay in a cabin in the caravan park. It was also just about the start of the wet season here too and we tossed up about going at all, we didn't want to get stuck up the either but asking some of the locals here about the weather and they all said it would be alright, but if it starts to rain make a run for home they said.
So of we headed for Karumba. Karumba is a town of about 600 people in the off season October to March and swells to 6000 people in the tourist season with about 12000 visiting each year. It is about 440 km north of Cloncurry and the road is surprisingly good. There is not much between Cloncurry and Karumba, Quamby is the first place you come to only 40km from here, there is only a pub there and we pulled in for a quick drink. There was a railway siding at Quamby when a rail line ran from Cloncurry to Kajabbi servicing the copper mines in the area but has since been taken up.

Quamby Pub.

Bourke and Wills Roadhouse

The next place along the way is Bourke and Wills about 180km from Cloncurry and there is not much there except for the roadhouse and the junction of the road to Burketown or Karumba. Another 195km on is Normanton and from there it is only 70km to Karumba.

The town of Normanton is steeped in history. The town of 1100 sits on the bank of the Norman River and was chosen for it's position on the river to be the port for the export and import of provisions and produce in the 1860's and then when gold was discovered at nearby Croydon in the 1890's the port became very busy. In 1885 a rail line was proposed from the port to Cloncurry for the use of copper miners in the area and in 1888 the first rails were laid. With the discovery of gold about the same time it was decided to alter the course of the line from south, to east over to Croydon. This line was the first line in Australia to be built using steel sleepers to combat the gulf''s notorious termites.

Wonder who she is waiting for?

These stone blocks line the whole town they are hand cut and placed and were laid more than 100 years ago.

As I mentioned earlier the railway was built from Normanton to Croydon during the late 1880's early 1890's. A mail steamer would arrive at the Port of Normanton on the Norman River and train timetables were set to coincide with this. The railway station at Normanton is heritage listed and is a beautiful old building and very well maintained. In the beginning the railway was operated with steam locomotives, the 3 original were built and imported from England, these were small and under powered for the job. Larger and more powerful locomotives were built in Ipswich for the service after a while. Steam was used up until about 1929 when it was decided that the expense and logistics of running steam locomotives in such a remote area was not viable, the freight had declined and loads were light so it was decided to run railmotors on the service and they still run today mainly as a tourist train. The 151km journey from Normanton only runs on Wednesdays to Croydon and returns on Thursdays, unfortunately we were there over the weekend so nothing was running. So lets have a look around the station.

Look in this photo and you can see the hollow steel sleepers laid 120 years ago.

One of the problems of running steam locomotives was the unreliability of water especially during the dry season. this is a loco water tank in the station yard.

There are various relics all around the station on display from the early steam days through the early railmotors to the current Gulflander, the restoration of this has to be seen to be believed, it's immaculate.

This is a B13 class locomotive No.234 it was built in Ipswich in 1892. It ran on this line until it was scraped in 1928.

The restoration on these carriages has brought them up better than they ever were new.

RM31, 45hp built at Ipswich in 1928. The railmotor was in service on this line from 1929 to 1945.

These are the remains of 2 B13 class steam locomotives and there tenders.

This is the current railmotor RM93, it was built in Ipswich in 1950 it arrived in Normanton in 1982 and replaced an earlier railmotor RM74 which was built in 1934 and ran on this line from1964 to 1982.

These points leavers we are still using today. Check the date.

Goods Shed.

This year is the 120th anniversary of the opening of the rail line so I'm sure they will have some special celebrations in July. It will also be in the tourist season. Next stop Karumba.

Karumba is a port town at the mouth of the Norman River, it was established at about the same time as Normanton in the late 1800's, but it was called Kimberley and the name changed to Karumba in the early 1900's as that was what the Aboriginals called the area. A telegraph station was established there just before the turn of the century and in the 1930's a refuelling and repair facility for the Empire Flying Boats which connected Sydney with Great Brittan was established. They used the Norman River as their air strip and during WW2 it was a Catalina Bomber base for the RAAF. Some of the infrastructure still stands today. Karumba today is a busy port town where fishing and prawning are the biggest industries along with the export of live cattle, zinc ore from Century Zinc mine 304km to the south west near Lawn Hill national park and tourism in the dry season. There are two parts to Karumba, the township and Karumba Point, the point is definitely the best part of this place a paradise not yet ravaged by commercialism. Although there are two caravan parks a small general store a couple of motels a restaurant and a pub the place is still like Bribie Is was 50 years ago, we loved it. Lets have a look around.

I heard this guy calling the Flinders River Bridge on the UHF a narrow low bridge a couple of k's up the road so I stopped and waited for him thinking he would be a triple roadtrain turned out to be a little truck. Anyway he pulled up for a chat.

The road is mostly good with only a couple of narrow section like the photo above.

These tidal wetlands extend about 30km inland from the river mouth.

Sunset Caravan Park. The camp kitchen is in the building.

301 palm trees in the caravan park and they have to denut them every year. (OUCH)

These cabins have en suites, we stayed in the one on the end.

This pub is absolutely fantastic, no air con all open and cool as, right by the water and what fantastic views.

The pub is right on the river mouth, this is why it's called Sunset Tavern.

Cannot swim here, there is big lizards in there.

They told us at the pub to follow this track along the coastline for some great views of the Gulf waters.

The tides here are on average 4.5 metres and only 1 tide per day.

This place was not open when we were there, it's only open in season but it would have been interesting to go through. It is the only Gulf strain Barramundi hatchery in the world.

This is the loadout facility for Century Zinc. Zinc ore is made into a slurry at the mine then it is pumped via a 304km pipeline to here where it is reconstituted in to a solid and loaded onto a ship for export. The ship loading is another story.

The MV Wunma is Century Zinc's transfer vessel, because the river mouth and near Gulf waters are shallow and the tides are huge this ship loads the ore in the port and takes it via quite a few trips to a mother ship anchored in an area 45km out in the Gulf.