Imbil Railway Bridge

Imbil Railway Bridge is a heritage-listed railway bridge over Yabba Creek, Imbil, Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built circa 1915 by Queensland Railways to facilitate settlement in the Mary River Valley. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 October 2011.HistoryThe Imbil Railway Bridge over Yabba Creek is located near the town of Imbil on the Mary Valley branch railway 22 miles 4 chains from Monkland station on the North Coast railway line. The Mary Valley railway line between Monkland station and Brooloo in the upper Mary Valley was constructed between 1911 and April 1915 to facilitate closer settlement of the Mary River valley. The Imbil Railway Bridge remains as evidence of the economic importance of the Mary Valley to Queensland agriculture during the 20th century. This half-through Pratt truss bridge, completed in January 1915, is one of only six bridges of this kind known to be remaining in Queensland.European settlement in the Mary Valley commenced when squatters took up pastoral leases there in the 1850s. Closer settlement in the Mary Valley started after half of Imbil station land was resumed for settlement under the Crown Lands Act 1868 and made available for selection. The gradual opening of the large pastoral holdings of Amamoor, Imbil and Traveston in the Upper Mary River Valley for closer settlement from the late 1870s was a catalyst for the development of small cropping and dairying activities in the region. The changing patterns of land use and settlement in the Mary Valley occurred while nearby Gympie evolved from its beginnings as a makeshift settlement and alluvial field of late 1867 into an important regional town and major deep reef gold producer by the 1880s. The township provided a ready market for the growing number of agricultural producers in the surrounding district. In the Mary Valley, maize and potatoes were the dominant early crops, although experimental plantings of tobacco, rice, sugar cane, peas and pineapples were also undertaken.