WALLANGARRA, QUEENSLAND

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A small town that only came into existence because it was here, at the Queensland / New South Wales border, that the two different gauged railway lines of Queensland (1067 mm) and New South Wales (1435 mm) met. Wallangarra is Queensland's southern most township. Being 877 metres above sea level, it is also one of Queensland's coldest towns.
Location: 258 km from Brisbane via Cunningham's Gap; 769 km from Sydney via the New England Highway.
Origin of name: of Aboriginal origin, believed to mean 'long lagoon' - 'wallan' means water and 'guran' means long.
Brief history: Graziers established runs here in the 1840s after the Darling Downs were opened up for settlement. The town was little more than a small cluster of buildings until the railway arrived. The meeting of two different gauges here necessitated it becoming a railway junction where travellers had to change trains. This necessitated a town on each side of the border - Wallangarra in Qld and Jennings in NSW - with two schools, two police stations, two pubs, two railway station ticket offices and a population of a few hundred between them. One end of the railway station platform was in Qld, the other end was in NSW. To change trains, passengers had to alight from one train, cross to the other side of the platform and walk to the other end to board a different train. This ridiculous ritual took place from the completion of the railway in 1887 until common sense prevailed in 1930 and a common gauge was adopted. Not surprisingly the town's most distinctive feature, and its only real attraction, is the rather grand Victorian railway station. Just as passengers had to change trains at the break of gauge at Wallangarra so too did goods. In its heyday the double-sided goods platform would have been a hive of frenzied activity as goods were transferred from one train to the other!
Natural features: Bald Rock National Park
Heritage features: the border tree, marked by Surveyor Roberts in 1865 to indicate the state border; World War II tank traps and Brisbane Line marker