Murphys Creek Railway Complex

Murphys Creek Railway Complex is a heritage-listed railway yard on the Main Line railway at Odin Street, Murphys Creek, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1921 to. It is also known as Murphys Creek Locomotive Water Tank & Tower. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 24 September 1999.HistoryMurphy's Creek Railway Station opened in 1867 on completion of the Main Range segment of the Ipswich-Toowoomba stage of the Southern and Western Railway. The station closed in 1992. The township of Murphy's Creek developed as a direct result of the construction of the railway station. The name Murphy's Creek was a reference to a creek named after a shepherd who had a hut in the area of the time of the 1864 survey for the Main Range Railway.Tenders were invited in January 1867 for the construction of station buildings at Murphy's Creek.Locomotives in the early years of operation on the Main Range had a limited water carrying capacity, and as a result water halts were required at Helidon, Murphy's Creek, and Highfields (later Spring Bluff). At Spring Bluff a 7,000 gallon (35,000 litre) water supply was created by damming a spring then gravity feeding the water to a water column situated in the station yard. Prior to the completion of the rail link, the Murphy's Creek area was referred to as a "feeding place for the engines" on the 30 kilometre range climb to Toowoomba, by a correspondent for the Brisbane Courier. Similarly, a journalist for the Darling Downs Gazette who had made the trip on a special picnic train from Murphy's Creek to Toowoomba prior to the opening of the Main Range Railway, described a water tank at Murphy's Creek for the use of locomotives.