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Canungra once boasted a sawmill and logging tramway that were widely known in Australia: the biggest softwood mill in Queensland and the tramway notable for its length and its engineering, including a tunnel. The Lahey brothers in 1884 built their sawmill on leased land along the north side of Christie Street, and the township of Canungra grew around the mill as its employees increased.

By the mid 1890s the Laheys could not continue to operate bullock teams to haul logs over indifferent roads on which they had spent much money. Sawn timber was carried by bullock wagons to the nearest railway at Jimboomba. It was not until 1914 that the state railway reached Canungra from Logan Village.

The Laheys built a private tramway from the mill to where the stands of hoop pine, araucaria cunninghamii, grew in the Coomera Valley, with a gauge 3ft 6in (just over 1 metre) that would match the government's line when it came to Canungra. To cope with the grades a Climax patent-geared locomotive made in Lima, Ohio, was the first to be imported to Australia. As the Darlington Range separated the mill from the valley of the Upper Coomera ( Pine Creek) a tunnel was built through the solid sandstone. About 100metres long, it is the most visible reminder of the Lahey family's once hugh undertaking.

The tunnel was pierced by 1st January 1901 and by 1903 five miles (8 kilometres) of track were laid and numbers of bridges built. The 18 tonnes B class Climax was put to the test of climbing the steep 1 in 12½ rise from near the mill up to the tunnel. When the latest extension to their main line was built it reached the boundary of Lamington National Park at Ilinbah and there were three branch lines, one up Prices Creek, one up Flying Fox Creek, total track length over 16 miles (28 kilometres). The tramway greatly reduced the cost of log haulage.

The Climax loco was followed by three geared Shay locos from ohio, USA, one of which was brought new and had a three-cylinder engine. It was the heaviest, weighing between 24 and 27 tonnes.

The tramway was used by the locals as transport, sitting atop the logs, for children going to school, for picnickers and, once a small carriage was built, for dignitaries including a Queensland Govenor and a Premier to see the dense forest. The total cost was almost £30,000 ($60,000) and more than 128 million superficial feet of logs were carried. The mill was sold about 1928 and the line was torn up by 1935.

Text: Shirley Lahey.

April 2000.