road and rail options mt m to mourilyan port, page-2

quote"4km track laid south of Mareeba to link from chewko to the existing line along the Kennedy hwy to Atherton section then a new section about 20km long from Atherton down the range to Little Mulgrave where the maps show an existing extension form there to Gordonvale" unquote

Not practical to push rail through rich hilly Atherton Tablelands farming country with plenty of creeks/gullies and then to go across/through the highest mountain range in Queensland. Would need 125+ Mt. Mulligan mines to support that. Best prospect is to go to Townsville or to Karumba in the Gulf and the latter would generate a lot of support. The road to Karumba via Mt. Surprise, Georgetown, Croydon is good but would create lots of problems with large coal trucks and I for one would be not in favour. There are already sections of railway line there and probable retained easements elsewhere. Most or all of that land is leasehold anyway and the tenants do not have a lot of rights.
The rail through Cairns and south is there but I do not know if the engineering is enough to support coal trains paticularly down the Kuranda Range. I do know that the bridges from Mareeba to Kuranda were done up about 7 years ago.