Abraham Fitzgibbon was the first chief engineer of the naiscent Queensland Railways, and it was he to successfully advocated for the use of narrow gauge or track.

Timeline

• Dun Mountain Railway
  Dun Mountain Railway
  The Dun Mountain Railway was a privately owned and operated gauge, 21½ km long horse-drawn tramway from chromite mines in the vicinity of Duppa Lode on the eastern slopes of Wooded Peak to Nelson port in the Tasman District of New Zealand's South Island...
  
   in New Zealand
  New Zealand
  New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
  
  , a horse-drawn line upon which Fitzgibbon worked from 1860 ( gauge)

• Fitzgibbon arrived in the colony of Queensland
  Queensland
  Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
  
   in June 1863.

• Appointed chief engineer

• Queensland Railways opened in 1965.

• "Pony railway will last 25 or 30 years", though in practice the pony gauge of has never been changed.

• Termination of Fitzgibbon's contract - July 1867

Gauge

The choice of narrow gauge was bitterly fought over in the press and in parliament. In the end, narrow gauge was adopted by a narrow margin in parliament.

Names

Fitzgibbon's first name is sometimes given as Abram.

Other times as Abraham.

His full name was Abraham Coates Fitz-Gibbon.

See also

• Dun Mountain Railway
  Dun Mountain Railway
  The Dun Mountain Railway was a privately owned and operated gauge, 21½ km long horse-drawn tramway from chromite mines in the vicinity of Duppa Lode on the eastern slopes of Wooded Peak to Nelson port in the Tasman District of New Zealand's South Island...
  
  which Fitzgibbon had worked on before in 1860 ( gauge)