February 13, 2023
Former Blackbutt resident Jeanette Morrison returned to her old stomping ground on Friday to unveil a history of a local grassroots fight, memories of which could have been in danger of fading away.
In 1994-95, local residents banded together valiantly to try to stop the rail tracks between Linville and Blackbutt being ripped up.
It was too late to keep actual trains running … they stopped in 1988.
But when they heard the tracks were going to be lifted and sold for scrap metal – and the bridges demolished – the residents vowed to keep just a section of the line intact.
The Blackbutt Range Historical Railway Society had visions of turning the picturesque, and historically important, Linville to Blackbutt link into a short tourist line, much like the Gympie Rattler or the Puffing Billy in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges.
The campaign was launched after a conversation between members of the Blackbutt Writers’ Group at the old Linville Railway Station.
Jeanette was proprietor of the local Blackbutt Motel at the time, but also worked as a journalist on the South Burnett Times newspaper.
Ultimately, as we all know now, the fight failed despite a massive public effort.
After much correspondence, the State Government gave the group just two weeks to raise almost $291,000 to buy the line … an impossible task.
The tracks were ripped up and the Linville-Blackbutt section became part of the much longer Brisbane Valley Rail Trail (BVRT), which now extends from Wulkaraka to Yarraman.
“If the ‘Save The Rail’ campaign had been successful … the intended use for this section of the corridor would have been very different from that of today’s. Fettlers’ trolleys and rail motors would have travelled over this special part of the remaining Brisbane Valley Railway Line,” Jeanette wrote.
She launched her 128-page history of the fight, “From Rail To Trail”, at the Blackbutt Memorial Hall, the site where the campaigners held their meetings.
In the audience were many of the original group, including former Nanango Shire Mayor Reg McCallum and 30-year council veteran Kerry Mercer, who rose through the ranks at Nanango to become acting CEO.
Jeanette’s book is packed with photographs, copies of official letters and scans of newspaper reports documenting the struggle.
Reg said it was “heartbreaking” now to remember all the effort that went in to trying to save the line.
He said Nanango Shire had supported the campaign, but the-then Rosalie and Esk shires had reservations.
Ironically, the post-amalgamated Toowoomba and Somerset councils were now big supporters of the BVRT.
And even Jeanette admits the failure of the proposal to save the tracks may have been a good thing.
The campaign ensured the rail corridor was kept open for public use and the ensuing BVRT has developed into a huge benefit for the area.
But why release the book now?
Jeanette said she had a box full of letters and news clippings, which she had been thinking about collating for some time.
“During the COVID lockdown, I had no excuse. I had plenty of time!” she said.
This box has now been handed to the Roy Emerson Museum for safe keeping.
- Copies of “From Rail To Trail” can be ordered directly from Jeanette by email
