Historical site of Gunnewin Siding is on the Carnarvon Hwy between Roma and Injune. The site’s main item is the Gunnewin Cream Can Shed and a railway section car sitting on a short piece of railway track to the side of it.
Gunnewin was a small town supporting farms around the area, with a railway station, school, general store. The railway line from Roma to Injune completed in 1920, with buildings, including cattle and sheep yards, completed in 1921.
The Gunnewin Provisional School was originally two schools, combined into one in 1922. The school was outgrown by 1927 and moved to the Gunnewin Hall, renamed to Gunnewin West School. The school closed in 1945, with several closures before then because of not enough attendance by students.
Trains ran from Roma on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and returning from Injune Creek on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Trains usually had vans for cream, goods vans, trucks for firewood or sawn timber, other goods. There were usually two carriages for passengers as well.
Trains were hauled by C17 Class steam locomotives until the 1950s, then replaced by diesel electric locomotives. The railway line to Injune Creek was closed December 1966.
Much of the land around Gunnewin was given to returning solders from World War I in 1919 as a recognition of the war services. The land, resumed from Mt Hutton Lands, was divided in to 320, 640, and 1280 acre blocks. After the settlers build huts, cleared and fenced their land, and constructed dams, the received land proved to be more like a punishment than a gift of recognition. Having to battle droughts, floods, pests, and the prickly pear infestation, the land was hard work with little reward.
Next to the cream can hut is a set of five standing stones, surrounded by a ring of stones around them, as tribute to the World War I original settler soldiers in the Mt. Hutton Land Scheme. The five stones represent the parishes with the names of the settlers, being Gunnewin, Injune, Crowman, Springbok, and Broad.
