When Queensland's first railway opened on this day 150 years ago, four trains were welcomed at Bigges Camp station, west of Brisbane, with much fanfare and cannon fire.

Lady Bowen, the wife of Queensland's first governor, had only 18 months earlier spiked the project's first sleeper, with one of the trains also named in her honour.

That sleeper was held up by 12-year-old William Morrow who laboured on the railway and would do so for the next 58 years.

"Although in itself a very simple matter, the spiking marked the commencement of trials and struggles of a primitive and isolated colony of vast dimensions settled by a population of some few thousands," the boy wrote in his diary from the day.

At the time, Queensland was a fledging colony of about 40,000 people.

Nearly half the population was uneducated and prosperity rested on wool.

Mineral wealth was yet to be exploited and agriculture had made little progress, partly because of the difficulty getting produce to markets.

Official opening of the first section of the Ipswich to Grandchester railway in Ipswich in 1865. The marquee was set up just past Bigges Camp near Laidley so attendees could see the tunnel works in the Liverpool Ranges. ( Supplied: State Library of Queensland. )

The first track ran for 34 kilometres between Ipswich and Bigges Camp, now Grandchester, to bring the wool and produce from the fertile Darling Downs.

It was then taken up the Brisbane River to the capital's ports via steam train.

Queensland Rail's first fleet of four trains took a combined 500 passengers on their first journey on July 31, 1865.

Aboard was the who's who of Queensland - ready for the biggest social event in the state's colonial history.

After rounds of long-winded speeches, the day was celebrated with champagne toasts and a sumptuous lunch in a marquee past Bigges Camp where the tunnel works on the Liverpool Ranges could be viewed.

Fruiters hawked their wares and cannon fire was let off by the local military, some of whom had bear-skin headwear.

The historic event was capped off with a "glittering ball" at Ipswich, Queensland Rail historian Greg Hallam said.

"People knew history was being made, but what was more important [was] that they knew they had a part in it," he said.

Peter Turner aboard the Lady Bowen, which his great grandfather drove on her first trip. ( ABC News )

"It symbolised to them that they had joined the rest of the modern world and had become an important part of the British Empire, the industrial revolution.

"They called it a new epoch, they said it marked a new age for everyone."

Peter Turner's great grandfather John Smith drove the Lady Bowen train that day, taking dignitaries on the first trip to Bigges Camp.

Mr Smith, whose son and grandson both went on to work at Queensland Rail, had come from England for the job.

"I knew since I was six, in 1949, that my great grandfather played that historic role in Queensland's history," Mr Turner said.

"I'm very proud."

Sorry, this video has expired Footage from the Ipswich railway works in 1947. Courtesy: Queensland Rail. ( Courtesy: National Film and Sound Archive )

Rapid expansion to burgeoning towns and mines

Nearly everything the railway needed to operate - staff, locomotives and carriages - were imported from Britain.

Mr Hallam said the enterprising colony chose a narrow gauge, the first in the world to do so for public rail, to save on cost.

The network expanded to 11 separate railways over the next 50 years and Queensland eventually had more than any other state in Australia.

For nearly half a century lines were used to unlock the land and put people on farms.

A railway cutting under construction c.1890 ( Supplied: Queensland Rail )

"It was almost a policy that no farmer should be more than half a day's cart ride from a railway," Mr Hallam said.

Townships sprang up around the new stations and tracks.

Simon Miller from the State Library said the population was quickly growing and the railways were key to opening up large areas, which had been connected in part by "terrible" roads.

"You can actually still see where the railway lines go inland, those areas still have large centres of population," he said.

"There was a lot of politics involved.

"Of course everyone wanted the rail line for their area, they wanted it to come to their particular town."

When gold was discovered, railways were built in the late 1800s to Mt Perry, Gympie, Charters Towers and Mount Morgan.

Track construction c.1880 ( Supplied: Queensland Rail )

"If it wasn't pastoralism, it was the mineral development of Queensland that needed the railways," Mr Hallam said.

"Wherever the lines expanded basically, they created those industries further."

The same happened when coal took over and there was a mad rush to build the Great Northern Railway, from Charters Towers to Cloncurry, in 1908.

"They got that rail line open before it was properly built because the world-wide demand was enormous," Mr Hallam said.

"They opened it really before bridges were properly built, to get it exported to places like Germany.

"Big money was being made."

It was not until 1924 that the final connection in the state's railways were made.

The so-called "ribbon of steel" went from Cairns to Brisbane, stitching up all of Queensland's rail lines.

Since the rail heyday, the number of rail lines in the state have contracted with the rise of the car.

Many development branch lines closed from 1948, Queensland Rail said, but at the same time the main lines were upgraded to provide contemporary services.

From the 1970s an extensive network of new lines was developed, particularly to service export coal mines.

The organisation's coal freight company QR National was privatised on a 99-year lease in 2010, raising more than $4 billion for the state.

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