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On 31 July 1865 Queensland's first railway was officially opened between Ipswich and Bigge's Camp (later called Grandchester). The railway line measured 20.83 miles (33.5 kilometres) in length and was the first narrow gauge railway (3 feet 6 inches) in Australia. The Brisbane Courier newspaper heralded the opening as “a new era in the history of the colony, and one the advent of which has been looked forward to with much anxiety for some time past."
So important was this event that a public holiday was decreed. The construction of this line represented the determination of the colony of Queensland that it could successfully go it alone after its separation from New South Wales in 1859. The line also signalled Queensland's progression to the industrial era. By 24 May 1866 the line had been extended to Gatton. It reached Toowoomba on 12 April 1867.