All Aboard The Gulflander to Critters Camp

For an afternoon rail excursion to Critters Camp from Normanton, a remote town in the Gulf country, we trundled along at 40km/hour in the shiny, three-car, 1980's railmotor set of RM93 Gardner diesel railmotor and carriages TP1809 and TP1811, known as 'the old Tin Hare'.

Normanton station displays a smart ticket office and memorabilia from yesteryear in the museum under a huge, arched roof.

The original plan for the Normanton railway in 1885 was to link to Cloncurry, but the discovery of gold in Croydon quickly prompted a change of destination.

The railway line running between Normanton and Croydon dates back to 1888 when the first rail was laid. To lower construction costs and defeat the termites of the Gulf, specially patented steel sleepers were used, designed by Queensland Railway Inspecting Surveyor George Phillips (1843-1921).



The weekly Gulflander service between Normanton and Croydon (154kms, 5 hours) is the sole remaining service to use the line these days, which is the last Queensland Rail line left to remain isolated from the rest of the rail network.

We climbed aboard for a 16 mile trip, sounding the deafening whistle as we exited the town, and kept on through the Bush, alarming wallabies, stopping briefly at a lagoon and a tidal creek with a 3m saltie, to reach Critters Camp.

The place was named after all the biting creatures, snakes, scorpions and spiders encountered by the railway construction crews. One worthy inspector was bitten on the bottom after sitting down on a scorpion.

The camp has an extra angle to allow the train to reverse and turn round. No bites to report here today, just a gaggle of 21 tourists meeting up in a bus to transfer to the train.

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Normanton, Gulflander, Queensland, Train