DIFFICULTIES IN QUEENSLAND MILIIARY RAIL TRANSPORT

Australian Standard Garratt Scandal covering a controversial aspect of the war. Few people are today aware of the significant contribution of the Queensland Government Railway system (Q.G.R.) to Australia's war effort fifty years ago. This paper examines the relationship between the railways and the Commonwealth, one which, born of the urgency and necessity of the moment, was far from co-ordinated and conducive to the free flow of War material. These aspects gained little publicity then or since. Australian manufacturing being predominantly in the south plus the use by United States supply vessels of Brisbane as one of their delivery points and the scarcity of local shipping and motor transport meant that the North Coast Line from Brisbane to Cairns was the safest and almost only method of transporting war material to northern ports and military establishments. Problems lay in four directions. Firstly, much of the line had bee