The BEST Museums in Bundaberg QLD

Bundaberg Steam Tramway Preservation Society Incorporated (BSTPS) trading as Australian Sugar Cane Railway (ASCR) is located on Al Steward Drive inside the Bundaberg Botanic Gardens off Mount Perry Rd, North Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia. The society is a non-profit organisation which is operated and maintained by volunteers and officially opened for service in November 1988, though the society was actually formed prior to 1978. The aim of the society is to restore, maintain and operate steam locomotives which were used in the Bundaberg district to haul sugar cane to juice and sugar mills within the Bundaberg region, bring awareness to present and future generations and also to showcase the machinery previously used by our pioneering families. ASCR's steam locomotives are 610mm (2 foot) gauge and are fired exclusively on coal. A new 1km track extension was officially opened in January 2015 which added to the existing 1km which was constructed in 1986 The trains now travel a journey of 2km through Bundaberg's Botanic Gardens. ASCR own 4 steam locomotives, 2 of which were built in Bundaberg at the Bundaberg Foundry. The steam locomotives which ASCR owns are: * No 1 Bundaberg Fowler (a.k.a. Jumbo), 0-6-2T configuration, built in 1952 under licence by Bundaberg Foundry. * No 3 Bundaberg Fowler (a.k.a. Nipper), 0-4-2T configuration, built in 1952 under licence by Bundaberg Foundry. * Invicta, 0-6-2T configuration, built by John Fowler & Co (Leeds England), build number 11277, built 1907. * Germany, 0-4-0T configuration, built in 1914 by Orenstein and Koppel (Germany), build number 6805. ASCR also owns a diesel loco called Valdora, 0-4-0DH configuration, built in 1965 by EM Baldwin. The carriages are made from 3 ton chopstick carriages which were previously used to haul cane to the mills and have been modified for passenger use.

Museum and historical society.

Bundaberg's first railway station, built in 1881 as an outlet for the Mt Perry railway bringing copper from the mines, is now preserved as a railway museum. Located some 500 metres from its original site, the museum houses a wide variety of railway items past and present.

Childers Arts Space (CHARTS) features exhibitions from both local and visiting artists nationally, locally and internationally. The art gallery is situated upstairs alongside the Palace Memorial.