Australia
From an American viewpoint Australia offers a unique perspective, I think, on scenery. Of course the trains look different. But in many respects, to my way of looking at it, the scenery looks much like the desserts of the American Southwest but in many places the earth looks redder.
Here are some nice photos from Simon Barber taken around Weipa, in northern Queensland, Australia. There is an isolated line that runs around 30 kilometers, carting bauxite from a mine to a port. This track is standard gauge 4 feet, 8 and a half inches just as we have in North America.
Queensland is a state in Australia, the world’s smallest continent, that occupies the northeastern section of the country. It’s bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the southwest and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. The state is Australia's second largest by area, following Western Australia, and the country’s third most populous after New South Wales and Victoria.
Queensland is often nicknamed the Sunshine State, since it enjoys warm weather and a sizeable portion of the state is in the tropics. Queensland has many places of natural beauty, including the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, which has some of the state’s most popular beaches. Queensland also has the Bunya Mountains and the Great Dividing Range with numerous lookouts, waterfalls and picnic areas, Carnarvon Gorge, Whitsunday Islands and Hinchinbrook Island.
Principal rail services are provided by Queensland Rail and Pacific National, predominantly along ports including the Port of Brisbane and subsidiary ports at Gladstone and Townsville.
Rail transport in Queensland began in 1865. Today it is the second largest narrow gauge railway network in the world.
