Random Bollocks From A Semi-Retired Foamer!

Nambour & District Historical Museum

The closure of the Moreton Sugar Mill in Nambour (Queensland), still remains a painful topic for many locals, as well as fans from further afield. It was not only the employer for a large amount of the population, the sugar season was also beneficial to many other local businesses that were not so directly related.
For many others, like myself, it was a mill that we were, and mostly still are, very passionate about.
Much of the mill tramway history has been preserved either privately, or on a few different museums. Most notably of these is the 'Nambour and District Historical Museum', located overlooking the old mill site, in the heart of Nambour.

The museum houses a phenomenal amount of local history, far more than can be truly appreciated in one visit. I return each time I am lucky enough to be in the area and always find more of interest.
They also have an extensive collection of records from across the region, all of which are available for viewing at the museum.

Of course, here we shall mostly be looking at the mill tramway items that are preserved at the museum.
Note that this is far from exhaustive. If you truly want to do the tramway collection justice, you would need to spend a few days there going through it all.

I hope the following gives you a bit of an idea what can be seen.
If you have any other enquires, I am sure the museum would love to hear from you (see the contact details above).

Sandy is a Malcolm Moore product, built in 1943 for the Australian Navy (South Australia), later coming to Moreton Mill. It spent many years on display at the mill entrance, before going to the museum.

Such is my obsession with the mill, my second born was named after SANDY the loco. If that is not bad enough, my budgies are named Petrie and Valdora :-)
Yeah, yeah, I've already been told it is a bit sad.

Following closure of the mill, PETRIE was transferred to Bundaberg, along with a number of other members of the locomotive fleet. I am not sure how much, if any, use was made of her there, however 'Bundaberg Sugar' later donated 

her back to Nambour.
While she is currently in the museum, I believe she is destined to be part of the Nambour Tram project which is to see the heritage track down Howard Street used by a battery powered tram.
PETRIE was built in 1968, the same year as myself.

SHAY was originally built in 1908 (Lima Locomotive Works) for the Mapleton Tramway, then rebuilt by the mill in 1948. Like SANDY, SHAY was on display at the mill entrance at time of closure.
SHAY has been beautifully restored (static) by the museum. I took a good number of detail shots while there, which I can put up should there ever be any interest.

Cane truck preserved by the museum.

EUDLO was build in 1925 by John Fowler (Leeds, England) and went to the Moreton Sugar Mill. She has the distinction of being the last steam locomotive operational at the mill, being kept as a standby loco into the 1970s.
When no longer needed, she was placed on display at the entrance of the mill, where she sayed until the mill closed in 2003.

Whole stick cane truck #445.

Two cane bins that 'Bundaberg Sugar' donated to the museum.
The closest, #1574, is an example of the normal bin that was in use for many years up until the mill closure.
The one behind, sitting upon the former mill tippler, is #765. While the same as the one in front, #765 is historically important as the last bin to be tipped.

BLI BLI was built by John Fowler in 1914.
She spent many years on display in Muller Park, Bli Bli (Queensland), before going to the museum in 2011 and subsequently being restored.

Little VALDORA is an oldie, having been built by 'Dick, Kerr and Co' way back in 1893.

Initially, she spent her time at Racecourse Mill in Mackay, not coming 

to Moreton Mill until 1937.
Like BLI BLI, she spent many years in a local park, before becoming part of the museum collection.

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If you are interested in the Moreton Mill, Mapleton and Buderim Tramways, you are welcome to join our 'Maroochy Shire Tramways' group.
Our 'Maroochy Shire Tramways' website also has a lot of information on the system.

Thanks to Clive Plater for picking up a rather bad typo.

Other sites of interest.

Nambour Historical Museum
Nambour Tram (Facebook Page)
Coast Locals (Facebook)
Nambour Remember When (Facebook)

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