0 Narko-Nutgrove Road, Peranga QLD 4352

Situation: 30 mins north of Oakey, 50 mins Toowoomba,10 mins Cooyar township.

Area & Tenure: 5.75 ha - 14.2 acres freehold.

Rates: Toowoomba Regional Council - $338.45

Country: Undulating timbered, with semi-open level areas.

Remarks: A great escape block with pushed tracks to level open areas suitable for a shed or campsite. Quality views to the east, situated just 1.7km off the Oakey-Cooyar Road and adjacent to the Muntapa Tunnel picnic grounds. This represents arguably the best value acreage block for sale in South East Queensland.

Points of interest in and around Lot 257 Narko Nutgrove Road

A key point of interest is the location of Lot 257 in relation to catchments and natural bioregions. Located on the eastern watershed of the Great Dividing Range the block is located within the Brisbane River Catchment and the South-east Queensland Bioregion. However county to the immediate west drains down into the Condamine Catchment and the Brigalow Bioregion.

Combined with a complex geology of the area these natural attributes contribute to the diverse fauna and flora of the area. A list of native plants recorded in and around Lot 257 plus a list of native wildlife species recorded within a five kilometre radius of the block is available from the agents. Scrub turkeys are regularly seen on the block and black striped, red necked and swamp wallabies are a feature of the area.

Lot 257 is also immediately adjacent to the historic Muntapa Tunnel Park officially opened by Rosalie Shire Council on 25th October 1997. Facilities at the park have since been upgraded by State and Federal grants and includes two gas bar- b-cues and a composting toilet. There is an excellent interpretive display which documents the history of the site.

The top of the Great Dividing Range was actually bored through to construct a perfectly straight tunnel 287 metres long and 640 metres above sea level, being the longest single bore tunnel in Australia. Completed in 1912 as part of stage three of the then Oakey-Cooyar railway line the tunnel is over five metres high and 4.5 metres wide. It is unique in being the only railway tunnel in Australia which connects two different major watersheds.

The work was undertaken by a group of 100 immigrant workers and their families who lived under canvass on site. The government of the day set up a school to educate the children and there was even a Muntapa Cricket Team formed for the duration of the project.

Steam trains ran every second day out to Cooyar and back to Toowoomba the following morning until the early 1960?s. The Acland to Cooyar section of the line was closed in June 1964.