All aboard!
The Mary River Rattler runs day and half day trips through the Mary Valley from Gympie.
Annie and I took the half day trip down as far as Amamoor.
We originally bought cattle class tickets on the net, but changed our minds at the station when we realised we'd be travelling with about one hundred screaming brats.
After all, this was the object of coming away from the coast to get away from the little buggers!
Anyway we upsized to the club car. Not exactly the orient express but at least it was quiet and we were served tea and bickies.
The engine was one of over 900 built by Walker and Company in Maryborough in 1950. The last one ran in 1963. It stood for some time in a park in Caloundra before being resurrected.
The line was built in 1911. In the lare 1920s there was a banana boom and the railway was a godsend for the farmers of the Mary Valley. The industry collapsed one or two years later when disease spread and imported Fijian bananas cornered the market.
The Mary Valley is very picturesque with it's rolling hills and lush valleys. It is the site for the controversial Traveston Dam, the subject of much heated debate.
One only has to travel through the Valley to see why people are distressed.
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