The Mary Valley Rail Trail is an unsealed trail linking the townships of Imbil and Brooloo, using part of the former historical Mary Valley branch line with a distance of 4.7km in total along the former railway corridor alignment. This is a joint project between Gympie Regional Council and the Queensland State Government to deliver a shared use recreational trail to re-use the railway corridor.
Brooloo is a rural town with a population of just around 350 people. The Bluff Provisional School opened in 1907, renamed Brooloo State School in 1915 and closed in 1970. Brooloo Hall and Post Office opened in 1915, closing 1972. An emerging township called Dewarill had developed by the time the railway line was constructed, which was renamed Brooloo derived from the local Kabi Kabi language by the railway department. The railway was intended to serve the large forest reserve to the west and included a station, turntable and engine shed at Brooloo, as well as basic accommodation, a water tank and goods yard. At its peak, Brooloo township had a bank, bakery, butcher, blacksmith, general store, post office, Grand Hotel. The railway line was constructed between 1911 and 1915. An extension from Brooloo to Kenilworth was approved in 1920 but never constructed. The line became unprofitable by the 1970s due to the economic impact of lowered butter consumption and the closure of the butter factory in Gympie in 1978 (after 80years of operation). The line to Brooloo closed in the early 1990s. More recently, the popularity of rural residential living has brought more families to the area.
You can start this power trail at either end, Brooloo or Imbil, however we have numbered the caches from the Brooloo end as there are many sources of refreshment in Imbil where you can recharge halfway through your walk, turn around then take the trail back.
This cache is a magnetic nano so you should have no trouble finding it after you absorb all of the information available.
CONGRATULATIONS to Janetwil for FTF!!Â
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