March 2, 2015
Back when timbergetting was the most important industry on the Bunya Mountains, a remarkable tramway was built by Danish sawmiller Lars Andersen to transport heavy logs down the steep mountain slopes.
Little if anything remains today of this amazing engineering feat, but thanks to former Wengenville sawmill manager Ivan Frost, visitors to the Bunya Mountains will now be able to enjoy a glimpse into the past.
Mr Frost, 82, was the manager of the Wengenville sawmill from 1959 to 1962.
For the “Back To Wengenville Day” held in 2013, Mr Frost constructed a special scale model of the town.
While he was attending that celebration – which recalled the former timber town located in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains – he decided another model was also needed to stop memories fading … this time a model of the incredible tramway system which used to feed the logs to the Wengenville timber mill.
Mr Frost started building the model in January 2014 and put the final touches to it just last week.
The diorama includes a representation of the mountain, tramway and related infrastructure as well as trucks, a bullock wagon, buildings, kangaroos and even a couple of carpet snakes in the bush.
It is not to scale, deliberately, so viewers can see exactly how the tramway system worked.
The model has been mounted under a special perspex cover at the Bunya Mountains Natural History Association’s museum “Cedarvale” at Dandabah.
The public had their first opportunity to take a look at the model on Saturday at Cedarvale’s regular weekly open day.
Mr Frost said the Wengenville model was the first he had built.
“I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it,” he said.
He admitted the tramway model was more difficult.
“I always knew about the tramway but I didn’t think it was this involved.”
Mr Frost has donated the model to the Natural History Association.
NB. “Cedarvale” is open every Saturday as well as the last Sunday of every month (to coincide with the Bunya Mountains Markets), as well as Sundays on long weekends and selected public holidays.
[Photos: southburnett.com.au and the Bunya Mountains Natural History Association]
- Related article: Memories Live On At Wengenville
- Download: Lars Andersen’s Timber Tramways (8.56Mb PDF, accessed from UQ website)
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It looks awesome cousin Ivan. Job well done
Excellent article and great publicity for the B.M.N.H.A! May we add that if anyone wishes to see Ivan’s previous large diorama of Wengenville township and sawmill, on which he spent about 1000 hours, it can be seen at Ringsfield in Nanango.