Tablelands Outdoor Recreation Assn (Inc) are working with Atherton Herberton Historical Rail to construct a rail trail beside their 22 km of rail track from Herberton Railway station and workshops to Atherton’s Platypus Park Railway Station. AHHR is the lessee of the rail corridor from TMR and is currently re-establishing the line from Herberton to Herberton Historical Village for the use of their newly re-furbished steam train. They maintain the line along the entire corridor, and take section cars between Atherton and the top of Herberton Range.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between TORA and AHHR to build a rail trail on the AHHR corridor, with the work being undertaken in several stages.
Stage 1 – Platypus Park (Atherton) to Hastie Road
Stage 1 was opened on 23 March 2019 and has since been maintained by volunteers from AHHR and TORA. The area has been beautified with the planting of trees along the eastern boundary of the rail. Plans are underway by AHHR to re-shape and upgrade the existing pathway.
Stage 2 – Hastie Road to Peter Street
Stage 2 is a 2.25km section between Hastie Road and Peter Street. The site adjoins the RAMSAR-listed Hastie Swamp National Park which is home to a remarkable collection of bird species. The length of the trail is shaded by a line of natural vegetation on each side.
Building a trail on this site posed considerable challenges. Although it was mostly flat with no major water crossings, the area drained the Mount Baldy range just to the west. Torrents of water flowed through existing culverts under the rail and seeped through every portion of the land onto the trail area. An existing roadway through the site, originally build to service the rail line, had also been used to install fibre optic cable, leaving a vee shaped formation that was frequently boggy, overgrown and impassable. Machinery access was limited to the peak of the dry season.
After a long 2021 wet season, construction begin in November 2021 after grants were obtained from Mount Emerald Wind Farm and the Gambling Community Benefit Fund. Allan Stevenson (Blue Gum Hire) and Brian Whittaker (Grader Hire) reshaped the trail, improved drainage, brought in some extra material and rock lined smaller culvert crossings. Volunteers worked on installing a gabion mattress crossing on the largest of the culvert crossings and rock mattresses on two “wet crossings”. The planned work period was dramatically shortened by a huge downpour of rain, which tested the newly built culvert crossings and the as-yet completed track formation. The contractor’s machinery was stuck in the middle of the site for several days until it was dry enough to retrieve.
It was disappointing not to be able to complete the planned work, including adding a capping layer of gravel to the trail surface. However, it was decided that, with care, the trail could be managed until the end of the wet season by opening it to pedestrians and bicycles in dry periods, and closing it in the wet. Ongoing monitoring and mowing was organised, and barrier mesh was installed on each access point with signs asking the public to take care of the “delicate” trail surface.
All was well for several weeks, until locals chose to use the area as a mud playground for their quad bike. Numerous personal requests, the re-installing of smashed barrier mesh and the re-establishment of signs all failed to stop the activity. Large sections of the trail were extensively damaged during 2022, with the ongoing wet season meaning that no machinery could enter the site to undertake repairs. It wasn’t a good year.
Work on the trail resumed in November 2022 with the help of a grant from TMR. After the trail dried out, the extent of damage was disheartening. However, Allan and Dale (Blue Gum Hire) worked for several days to reshape the trail, bring in a mountain of fill and begin the process of adding rock and a gravel capping layer to the trail. Volunteers moved in with whipper-snippers to tidy up a season’s overgrowth of vegetation. Ross Clark (FNQ Cable Locators) used his amazing equipment to locate the fibre optic cable and safely vacuum holes for gate posts and signs in the risky areas. Other volunteers made signs, concreted posts in place, then put up gates and signs. For extra security, welds were added to each sign and gate hinge. Once again, the early rain and heavy falls chased off the machinery, and there is still work to be done.
In January 2023, Stage 2 between Hastie Road and Peter Street is open and accessible. There are still things to be done, but this stage is now rideable in most weather, albeit a bit muddy and rocky in parts. Further works will be done over the coming months, whenever there is dry weather and willing workers. The planned works include improving catch drains along the western side on parts of the trail, extending the rock underlay in the lowest remaining section and adding a capping layer of gravel to the remainder of the trail. The area will be beautified by plantings of natural vegetation at each entrance, with plans to add culvert crossings in several areas. Trail security has been improved by further discussions with locals and trail users, the placement of gates and rock barriers at the entrances, signage prohibiting motorised users, and more frequent trail mowing and surveillance.
Stage 3 – Wongabel Road to Peter Street – 2km
Planning for Stage 3 between Peter Street and Wongabel Road is now underway. Until recent years, cyclists and walkers informally used this 2km section to join with Stage 4 which is the beautiful 7km ride up beside the rail to the top of Herberton Range. However, Stage 3 has five timber rail bridges, some up to 75 metres long, which are now too dangerous to cross. Instead, cyclists take a 5.5km detour from the trail at Peter Street, including navigating the busy Atherton Herberton Road and the quarry trucks on Wongabel Road, to re-join the trail for Stage 4. Construction challenges on Stage 3 will include site access, with no formed or public roads into the area. Permission has been obtained from the owners of the property bordering the eastern side for access to the site, as well as offers of assistance from AHHR with the use of their section car and rail infrastructure.
Details of each bridge crossing from Peter Street to Wongabel Road are as follows:
Bridge 1 – The existing timber rail bridge is 15 metres long and spans Scrubby Creek. It is a deep v-shaped crossing, which carries a high volume of fast-flowing water in the wet season, but is crossable in the dry season. The area is designated as a “high impact (red)” waterway. It is approximately 200 metres south of Peter Street along a formed roadway that will be used as part of the rail trail.
Bridge 2 – The existing timber rail bridge is 50 metres long and spans the overflow from Falls Creek. As such, it has a gentle gradient on the northern side that is typically dry and grassy. The water crossing is a few metres wide in the dry season, leading to a steeper bank on the southern side. It carried a high volume of water in the wet and in rain events. It is not a designated waterway. It is located about 600 metres south of Peter Street.
Bridge 3 – The existing timber rail bridge is 25 metres long and spans Falls Creek. It has steeper sides on each bank and carries a very high volume of water in the wet season and after rain events. It is relatively dry at other times. It is in a designated “red” waterway area. It is located about 650 metres south of Peter Street.
Bridge 4 – This is a small timber bridge of 5 metres in width that crosses an unnamed creek and is not in a designated waterway area. It is crossed at most times by either a side track or using the bridge timbers, which are in quite good condition. It is rarely impassable in wet weather and could be replaced by a small culvert. It is located about 1.2km south of Peter Street.
Bridge 5 – This is a timber bridge of 75 metres length in very poor condition. It has a gentle gradient on its southern side to a small unnamed waterway, and a steep bank on the northern side. Most of the area was traversed using a track to the eastern side of the bridge until recent years, when the deterioration of the other bridges along the trail virtually ceased use of the area by cyclists and pedestrians. Initial enquiries showed this to be in a low impact “green” waterway. However, an application to SARA indicated it to be in a “red” area. This bridge is located 1.6km south of Peter Street, immediately before the old Wongabel Station area. It would represent a significant staging point for the trail, being just before the start of the very gentle 7km climb along Stage 4 to the top of Herberton Range.
For most of the 1.8km distance, the Stage 3 of the trail will be located on wide benched area immediately beside the rail, leaving little additional trail construction work needed. It is a very flat stage, with a well-shaded trail along the entire section beside extensive areas of farmland and state forest.
Several options have been investigated for crossings of the waterways on Stage 3, including placing a walkway on top of the existing bridges, adding a pedestrian/cycle bridge to the side of existing bridges, using gabion mattresses to build ground level paths to smaller culvert crossings, building larger culvert crossings and installing purpose-built bridge structures.
These investigations have found the following:
- The timber bridges are the property of Atherton Herberton Historical Rail (AHHR Inc). TORA has a Memorandum of Understanding with AHHR to construct a trail on their leased land beside the rail line in a way that does not interfere with the current or future use of the rail. AHHR are making great progress in developing the rail line and rail infrastructure. They regularly use the line and bridges for conveying workers and materials to maintain the line. As such, the use of the bridges as bases for a walkway is not viable.
- Adding “bolt-on” pedestrian/cycling bridges to the existing bridges would require considerable engineering design and input, including an investigation into the existing integrity and capacity of the bridges. Many of the bridges are in poor condition and may require considerable upgrade works to make them suitable for this treatment. While TORA have permission to build a track adjoining the rail, it is not clear if this extends to adding a bridge to existing structures.
- An exploratory application was made to SARA regarding the use of ground level gabion mattresses as a means of crossing waterways at level at bridge 5 to minimise the expense of building a long bridging structure. The advice receive clearly prohibited the use of gabion mattresses due to the potential impact on fish and other species that potentially inhabited the waterway. Further advice was given that any structure in a waterway, including any causeway structure, would be subject to stringent criterion regarding possible impediments to the flow of water, wildlife and fish, as well as disturbances to existing ground and vegetation.
- Further explorations are currently being undertaken as to the cost and viability of purpose-built bridging structures for these waterways. In recent years, there have been significant advances in the materials and methods available for bridges that are lighter in weight, lower in maintenance requirements and suitable for a variety of previously difficult to access locations.