SAR Laura

Commodities:  Passengers Goods Livestock      Facilities:  Turning        Distance from Gladstone:  11¼ kms, 7 miles A manned station on the  Gladstone-Wilmington Line  until 1983 when all the station staff on the line were withdrawn. Station and goods loops, a stockyard siding and a turning WYE. The Gladstone-Wilmington Line is unsignalled. Train Order working is in operation on the line. Laura was the terminus of the line from 1884 to 1910 which explains the presence of a turning WYE and the "Grade 1" stone station building. Passenger services ended in 1969. The goods and stockyard facilities were closed at the end of 1984. The line was closed in 1990 and the track has since been removed. Now nothing remains of the railway or its structures at Laura. The former station yard is now a woodland. The former right-of-way from just north of Laura to Stone Hut and a short section south of the creek crossing are now walking and cycling "rail trails". Work is underway to extend the trail from Stone Hut to Booleroo Centre to join the existing Southern Flinders Rail Trail to Wilmington. Eventually, the trail will run the entire length of the track from Gladstone to Wilmington.