Etheridge railway line
The Etheridge Railway line, which branches off the Mareeba-to-Chillagoe railway at Almaden and heads south for to Forsayth via Mount Surprise and Einasleigh, was built between 1907 and 1910 by the Chillagoe Railway and Mining Company as a private railway line. The same company constructed the railway line from Mareeba to Chillagoe and Mungana between 1898 and 1901. The Etheridge line was built cheaply, with lighter rails and fewer earthworks than the Chillagoe line, to supply ore to the Chillagoe Company's under-utilised Chillagoe smelters. The Chillagoe Company was part of the business empire of John Moffat, and between 1880 and 1914 much of the economic activity of North Queensland was driven by the railways and mining towns created by Moffat's enterprises. The remaining built infrastructure at stations along the Etheridge Railway provides examples of the type of buildings erected by the Chillagoe Company for its railway network.
Etheridge railway line
John Moffat retired in 1912, and died in June 1918. He helped develop North Queensland by bringing both public and private capital into the region, and from 1880 he had built up mining as the key foundation of the region's economy. His railway lines also assisted pastoralists, as railways resulted in cheaper rates for transporting supplies, and cattle could be sent to meatworks in better condition. Although gold mining briefly revived mining traffic on the Etheridge line in the 1930s, it was pastoralism that kept the towns of the Etheridge alive.