Rimutaka Tunnel The first shot was fired in 1948 when the Public Works Department started the tunnel with bores of at the western end and at the eastern end. A contract for completing the tunnel was let to a consortium of Morrison Knudsen Inc. and Downer and Company on 7 May 1951. The work commenced at the west end in July 1951 and at the east end in August. The contract was expected to be completed in four years, but the headings met on 20 April 1954 with the concrete lining finished a month later. New Zealand Railways took possession of the
Yimbun Railway Tunnel ceased. The Yimbun Railway Tunnel, constructed in 1910 on the section between Yimbun and Blackbutt, is the only tunnel constructed along the entire Brisbane Valley Branch Line and one of only three remaining intact major rail structures on the Brisbane Valley Rail Line, the others being the Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge at Clarendon and the Harlin Rail Bridge. Of the 55 railway tunnels constructed in Queensland between 1865 and 1931, only nine are recorded as located on branch lines. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The Yimbun Railway Tunnel is