By: Dr David Cameron9th Sep 2021 5:40AMThis is a view looking south over the former Hudson Brothers Narani sawmill (1873-1907) tramway log landing ramps at the Tramline Beach on the southern shore of Smiths Lake. The Hudson Brothers sawmill sourced most of its saw logs from the Tarbuck Brush area (now Wallingat National Park) situated to the north and west of Smiths Lake. By the mid-1870s a short 2.2 kms horse drawn portage tramway was built to connect the Narani sawmill with Smiths Lake at Tramline Beach located to the north. In 1879 the horses were replaced by a steam locomotive, with a second loco joining the first in 1881.

At the Tramline beach log landing the logs were then rolled off the drogher and ‘wet’ loaded onto to the tram trucks running on rails submerged in the water. Horses and a steam winch were used to load the logs onto the trucks and to haul the loaded trucks further up the beach on the gently inclined tramway ramp to be marshalled into sets. At the head of the beach the sets were hitched to the steam locomotive for the short run over a low saddle ridge through 5 m deep cutting and on to the sawmill and village at Narani (now Neranie)..

On the northern side of Smiths Lake the Hudson Brothers constructed a second horse drawn tramway which ran south for about 8 kms out from the Tarbuck Brush to its terminus at Tarbuck Point on the north-western shore of Tarbuck Bay. At Tarbuck Point the logs were rolled off the tram trucks and on to a steam powered paddle drogher for the short 2.6 kms haul over to Tramline Beach on the southern shore.