Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For close to 150 years, the Ipswich Railway Workshops have been integral to the economic, social and cultural life of Ipswich. In 2002, we saw a renaissance of the work site there, with the workshop's rail museum being reborn in a way that an old icon became a new icon. Some years later, the railway workshop's museum has attracted 100,000 visitors every year, winning numerous tourism awards for heritage. Every year the workshop's museum seems to win award after award. I congratulate Andrew Moritz, the director of the museum. Kids go there, school groups go there and we have citizenship ceremonies there, and they continue to run a railway workshop construction yard there. I am pleased to announce that four local projects in Blair received funding under the Your Community Heritage Program, and most of the $135,000 goes to the railway workshops complex and the railway sites in Ipswich: $90,909 goes towards updating the conservation management plan, introducing a more efficient, targeted maintenance regime, and $22,727 goes towards the objective of the project to develop a smart phone application for the interactive audiovisual tour showcasing the history of the Ipswich railway workshops.

Grandchester also received funding for the Grandchester railway complex—$12,818—in partnership with Queensland Rail to undertake guided tours. At its height, 3,000 men and women worked at the railway workshops. In the history of Ipswich they built over 200 locomotives and thousands and thousands of carriages. Not many people know that the first railways in Queensland did not go from Ipswich to Brisbane but from Ipswich to Grandchester, then known as Biggs Camp. It is important to note also how many men worked there year after year: hundreds and hundreds of boilermakers and blacksmiths worked there. I grew up with the sons and daughters of people who worked there. My grandfather was a railway worker, and my great-grandfather was a railway worker—a carriage maker, Henry Greensill—who actually worked there as well.

It is great to see this site and what it has meant to Ipswich. Kids go there, enjoy the history, the interactive exhibitions and the adventure playgrounds there, and get a knowledge of the history of Ipswich. Congratulations to the museum and congratulations Andrew for the great work you do for the people of Ipswich.