This locomotive was built by John Fowler in Leeds in 1933 for the Queensland Machinery Co. for the Babinda Co-operative Central Mill Society Ltd. It operated at the Babinda Central Sugar Mill where it carried the No 6.
The sugar mill at Babinda opened in December 1915 and the locomotives were used to haul cane sticks to the mill and raw sugar to the port at Mourilyan Harbour.
As well as hauling the cane to the mill locomotives at Babinda were also employed occasionally used to pull Mill trucks fitted with seats to selected picnic sites in the area. During the Second World War they were used to haul trucks to transport community members to a bushman’s picnic in the Alice River area.
In 1918 a cyclone badly damaged the town of Babinda and entire train was train at the station was blown over.
From 1959 the locomotive worked at the Moreton Central Sugar Co. Ltd., Nambour, where it retained the No.6 and gained the name Petrie.
The Moreton Mill which dates from around 1895 was connected to the Nort Coast railway line via a tramway built to transport the sugar. There were also narrow gauge (2ft) connections to many farms to aid the collection of the sugar canes.
The Moreton Mill cane tramway route through the Nambour town centre earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places and remains preserved, albeit now an unused and isolated remnant of the once extensive tramway in the Nambour district. The Moreton Mill system was notable for having a major route threading through the heart of the town’s busy commercial district.
The locomotive was out of use by 1967.
In 1970 the locomotive started life in preservation at Cox’s Museum, Maroochydore.
It then moved to the Suncoast Pioneer Museum at Mudjimba Beach in Queensland.
In 1985 it changed ownership and moved to a private site near Echuca in Victoria.
The locomotive later moved to the private Gherang Gravel Tramway.
In 2014 it was reported that the locomotive was based at the private Mandalong Valley Railway north of Sydney.
By March 2019 the locomotive was relocated to Timbertown, Wauchope in New South Wales for the completion of an overhaul and subsequent operation at the Timbertown Heritage Railway. Interestingly the gauge of the railway at the Timbertown Heritage Railway is 598mm which is 12mm less than the 610mm or 2ft that the locomotive was built to operate on.
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