1 Dollar - Elizabeth II Australia's First Steam Train

The locomotive commemorated here is the Josephine, which hauled the first steam-powered railway journey in Australia on September 16, 1854, running from Flinders Street to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne) in Victoria. The line was operated by the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company, beating the Sydney Railway Company's inaugural run by just weeks in what had become an intensely competitive race between the colonies.

Cook Islands issues of this period were produced under licensing arrangements that had little connection to the subject matter — a common practice for the island's revenue-generating commemorative program.