Rural section of Mary to Bay Rail Trail progressing well

Rail Trails Australia Central Queensland rep Desley O’Grady made a flying visit to Hervey Bay recently to inspect the latest work on the Mary to Bay Rail Trail and share her experiences in preparing a rail trail for opening. She met with members of the Fraser Coast Bicycle Users Group (FCBUG) Rail Trail committee at the Takura Trailhead picnic area in the old Takura rail yards. The FCBUG section of the Rail Trail extends 11 kilometres from Takura almost to Colton.

The rural section of this rail trail has generated huge interest both locally and in the wider rail trail community through a very successful public Facebook Discussion group which has over 2,600 members. So much so that the Committee has decided to speed up opening this rural section of the Trail to allow public access. Desley’s input to this was greatly appreciated and the Takura get-together was followed by a ride out to bridges 5 and 6 to inspect work to date on the gully bypass number 6. The integrity of this work was validated recently when heavy rain recently briefly ran the gullies to a depth of 1 to 1.5 meters but the crossing beside bridge 6 received only minor damage.

Fraser Coast Regional Council has constructed a sealed urban section of 14 kilometres from Urangan Pier to Nikenbah on the southern side of Hervey Bay township, with further a 3.7 kilometer rural unsealed section from Piggford Lane to Stockyard Creek. Please refer to the Mary to Bay Rail Trail on Rail Trails Australia’s website for a map of the trail and further information.

Currently the FCBUG and Fraser Coast Regional Council have applied for a number of grants to further work on their respective sections.

The Pialba branch line from Colton was opened in 1896, extended to Urangan in 1913 and closed in 1993. Much of the infrastructure was lifted in 1995 and the then Hervey Bay City Council started developing a Mobility Corridor on the urban section of the former railway soon after.

Additional maps and further detail can be found in the public Mary2Bay RailTrail Discussion group in Facebook.