Traditional Owners

We acknowledge the Ngarigo people, the traditional custodians of the land and waterways on which the rail trail will be built.

Development and future of the rail trail

A group of locals formed Monaro Rail Trail Inc to work on proposals to use the abandoned rail corridor for a multi-use trail, enabling wider community use by walkers, cyclists and equestrians.

Snowy Monaro Regional Council commissioned a feasibility study of the Trail in 2019.

The Canberra to Port of Eden Rail Feasibility Study, published in 2021, found a return to rail project is not feasible.  Snowy Monaro Regional Council has allocated funding for a development plan for southern sections of the rail trail.  The Queanbeyan Palarang Council has allocated funding for a development plan for a northern section of the rail trail.

If you are interested, contact us at

ns*@ra********.au

Rail Line History

The Bombala line extends from near Goulburn in southeast NSW almost to the Victorian border, finishing at Bombala. It travels within a few km of Canberra, then runs to Cooma and Nimmitabel.

Construction of the line began in 1887, reaching Cooma in 1889, and it survived until 1990. The Cooma to Nimmitabel section opened in 1912 and was extended to Bombala in 1921. There is a tunnel at Colinton.  From Cooma the line winds through hills to the terminus at Bombala.

This railway was very important and very busy during construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme from the 1950s to 1970s. The Scheme, the largest engineering project so far undertaken in Australia, provided a major source of employment for postwar migrants; 100,000 people worked on the Scheme between 1949 and 1974, two-thirds of them migrants from more than 30 countries.

The Goulburn to Cooma railway line became the lifeline for the Scheme, with passenger trains transporting materials as well as workers and their families to and from Cooma. It was progressively closed past the point where the Canberra line branches off. The Australian Railway Historical Society ACT division had operating rights from Queanbeyan to Michelago, though no trains have run since 2006.

Rail motors which ran between Cooma and Chakola, and the Cooma Monaro Railway operated diesel railcars, known as ‘Tin Hares’ on sections of the line many times a year. While neither now operate, there are rolling stock and/or exhibits at the Historical Society’s Museum behind Canberra station, and at Cooma and Bombala stations.