Nippers Railway

Disconnect the kids from the drone of the computer and get into hands-on fun with the Nippers Railway - it's an exciting, interactive railway filled with adventurous and fun things to do and kid-sized places to visit.

What is a Nipper?

The youngest member of a railway gang was often called the nipper. The nipper did odd jobs around the camp to help the men who built and maintained the railway line.

Meet nipper Billy Mills

Billy Mills was a nipper who helped build Queensland's first railway line from Ipswich to Grandchester.

Billy's moment of fame came at the ceremony held in 1864 to mark the start of the line's construction. The official record says that Lady Bowen, the wife of the Governor, used a silver spade to turn the first sod of earth. But legend has it that the railway workers held their own unofficial ceremony before this. It was Billy, as the youngest of the workers, who turned the first sod, beating Lady Bowen to it.

Billy worked with a gang of navvies (railway construction workers) to build the railway line. When he grew up he worked as a train driver for forty years. His grandson worked here at the Ipswich Workshops and still lives in Ipswich today.