Part K describes the Coffs Harbour Port. The Coffs general history and its railway story is very much linked to its role as – yes, an important harbour. In this stage we’ll look at the drivers for settlement, the light timber railway systems, and the creation of the harbour with its links to narrow and standard-gauge railways. From there, we’ll look at the arrival of the North Coast Line in dribs and drabs confronted by the challenging conditions to build a railway.

The author provides this context for his work:

There is obviously a good deal of explanation that has gone before as to why it took so long for agreement to be reached to build the 1,000km North Coast Line between Sydney and Brisbane, why this occurred over dribs and drabs over many decades and why Coffs was one of the last sections completed. 

In the era when it was being constructed around Coffs it was competing for manpower, finance and public attention with the simultaneous expansion and electrification of the Sydney Suburban Railway and its underground component. Far more prominent and contained with lots of political kudos and borrowed money riding on it.

While the North Coast Railway was completed and opened in 1932 it was elbowed aside in media and international attention by the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the same year.

There are some inspirational stories and themes surrounding the design and construction of the North Coast Line which should resonate today in showing what can be achieved through collaboration and positive endeavour during tough times.

The North Coast Line's design, development, financing and sheer hard human effort took place during the Boer War, WW1, the Spanish Flu, plus the Great Depression and was added to during WW2.