I downloaded this one ages ago, but finally got to play it. Nice map. I like the haul goals to earn extra track pieces.
My strategy was to build a good industry (Textile Mill in decent demand area is probably the best choice for ROI over the length of the game). Then my focus was to make the general haulage goal which is 1 or more for the first year. In this era passengers are profitable. I made sure to develop the metropolitan area west of Sydney with this in mind, Hotels etc. I saved track pieces by building large stations that covered two "cities" (Parramatta/Botany Bay, Camden/Campbelltown, Richmond/Windsor). I serviced towns fairly well with an eventual total of 100 trains. At the start of a new year I would take out max bonds (the consequences of max bonds aren't too bad, bonds are still completely worth it), build the rails/buy the trains I needed to make the general haulage goal, then I spent any remaining money on industry. I never missed this goal. Was good for an 18 year medal on first attempt.
As I expanded my network south along the coast, my trains started picking up Lumber which was then funneled towards Sydney. I never bought special trains for this goal, just let the auto consist do its thing. To get the Wool goal I connected to cities which had a passing Wool cargo stream (often down a river). This included a connection up north to Newcastle. Before I made the connection to the east where Wool is plentiful I also hauled some Wool from the other ports into Sydney. Some of this Wool I had already hauled once (automatically), but I used these ports as collection facilities for a haul into Sydney as supplying the ports there with wool earlier is a fun side task. The way the ports are setup (supplies and demands but no conversion chain) once a port is well supplied with wool for 3-5 years it will upgrade. This gives more Iron to make Steel with.
The metropolitan area around Sydney (close cities) makes getting the Steel Mill positioned and producing take a little longer than normal. When the station cell washes out (its orange, but the surrounding cells are green demand), it's a little frustrating to have to wait for the game to re-adjust demand there. That's a game weakness, so can't be helped. I used the Springwood-Lithgow pass to connect to Bathurst and then branched out to the north-western cities including Wellington. Tried to take the shortest routes, with spurs to reach the final outlying towns such as Queanbeyan (used a tunnel as I had plenty of cash), Musswellbrook, Goulburn, and Crookwell.
There is a yearly allowance of 100 track pieces even if you don't meet any of the haulage goals. Discounting the initial track available, I used up 4,050 pieces of track (I double-tracked most of the line between Sydney and Wollongong). If your play-style makes it difficult to get some of the goals, don't worry. If you can get one of the haulage goals every year (wool) and another for half of the game (lumber) you can still win this game. Admittedly, waiting may get a little boring. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed keeping my company growth in sync with the current year's target number of general hauls. IMO, it's one of the stand-out aspects of strategy here.
I see that it's an old Australian map. I thought it was a new North American map covering Blue Mountains Tennessee. 
