Cooloola Tramway, Heritage tramway complex in Great Sandy National Park, Queensland, Australia

The Cooloola Tramway is a heritage railway line that runs through sandy terrain in a large national park, featuring wooden rails and cuts made through ridge lines. The surviving sections include old locomotive foundations, timber bridges, and graded track work that visitors can still see today.

The tramway was built in 1873 as Queensland's first major private railway to move timber from inland forests to the coast. This project shows how early entrepreneurs used railway technology to extract resources from remote areas.

The line was known in the 1870s as the Kaloola Railway, and it also carries the names Cooloola Railway, Pettigrew's Railway and Pettigrew's Tramway. It opened in October 1873 as Queensland's first major private railway, built by William Pettigrew to carry kauri pine from inland Cooloola to Tin Can Bay.

Access requires a permit from the park authority and a four-wheel-drive vehicle to handle the sandy tracks and rough terrain. Plan for slow travel along uneven sections and bring plenty of water and navigation tools.

The site preserves wooden rails and locomotive foundations that reveal how workers built railways using practical methods in wild country. This hands-on construction style is rare to find today and offers insight into how people solved engineering challenges in the 1870s.