The Rail Cometh

Almost since Methuselah* was a boy, the inland rail from Melbourne to Brisbane has been part of the promise for the Queen's own states - Queen Victoria's Victoria, and Queen Victoria's Queensland. The rail cometh promises Malcolm Turnbull, with $8.4 billion (8,400 million) allocated. Solemnity aside, the Liberals and Nationals really are serious about making a start on this rail project. The inland rail will pass near to Goondiwindi, and certainly destined to go through North Star, Yelarbon and Inglewood.


Gladstone Concept

I met Malcolm Turnbull briefly in Caloundra in September 2017, and I gave him some of the information about an extension to Gladstone which Mr Donald Cranney from Yelarbon had written. While this inland Melbourne-Brisbane train project is primarily about increasing trade between Victoria and Queensland, the rail will also increase international trade. Inland NSW and Southern Queensland could become major food suppliers to Asia with the Brisbane-Melbourne train, but especially if there is a line from about North Star, close to Goondiwindi and through to Gladstone.
The Prime Minister wrote to me on 27th Oct 2017 saying that Gladstone will come under consideration. The content of the letter is on page 120. The dream of this train probably goes back over a century. But the starting formulation was proposals by Everald Compton to the newly elected Prime Minister, John Howard, in 1996. Everald's proposal was an Inland Railway from Melbourne to Darwin via Parkes, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Gladstone, Mount Isa and Tennant Creek. Well, we seem to be getting "Melbourne via Parkes, Toowoomba, Brisbane" while some of the later parts of this article focus on "to Darwin via Gladstone, Mount Isa and Tennant Creek." Everald set up the Australian Transport and Energy Corridor Ltd, which later was bought by the Federal Government and become The Australian Rail Transport Corporation (ARTC).


One Day Freight

When completed in 2025, the Mebourne - Brisbane Rail line will allow deliveries within a time frame of about 24 hours in either direction over the mainly wide open plains with just two crossings of the Great Dividing Range, instead of nearly double that time going through the mountainous regions of NSW and stopping off in Sydney and then more continuous mountains up the east coast to Brisbane. Each freight train, travelling at 120 km/hr, on the inland rail has the capacity to move the equivalent of 110 B-Double trucks. This is a huge amount of trade, significantly improving our export potential, and improving our interstate trade through reduced transport costs, which can also be seen as allowing Australian products to more easily replace imported products. And as a little by-product for us mere mortals, we will have a safer and easier to drive Highway 39 - Newell Hwy & Leichhardt Hwy, as well as Cunningham Hwy. The roads will not need the expensive constant upkeep and repairs to damage caused by large trucks, even with the very responsible current driving patterns.
The Hon Darren Chester, MHR, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, estimates that annually some 200,000 truck movements can be replaced by this Brisbane - Melbourne rail. That's about 540 trucks a day. The inland route will reduce scheduling pressures on the Sydney rail network, and its surrounding areas, allowing the ability to provide many more local train services for Sydney firms and passengers throughout eastern NSW. Both Perth and Adelaide, along with Port Kembla, will have improved trade via Parkes with Brisbane. Even areas as far way as Western Moreton, some of which is included in the Pocket Book Caboolture zone, will have better access to Melbourne markets for farm produce. The promise of train delivery in one day to southern markets could see quite an increase in sub-tropical horticulture. Stanthorpe and Warwick will also have improved market access. (There is also another major rail project about to start: the more direct linking of Melbourne to Darwin. The Victorian city of Maryborough, the town where this book is printed, will host the head development teams for that project.)


Even a Global Angle

Of course, in terms of World Geographical-Politics, these two rail projects are designed to keep Australia competitive in Asia as China builds its Silk Road rail across Asia and into Africa and Europe. From about the 6th Century, after the collapse of much of the Roman Empire, through to the 14th Century, when Britain started to develop its Empire, China, with its old Silk Road, had been the dominant economy on the Globe. As well as freight, passenger services will probably operate. The Australian Rail Track Corporation operates primarily freight on its lines, but usually state governments, and private operators, do arrange passenger services with the ARTC.
The impetus for this development coming forward in this decade is because in 1998 the Howard Federal Government, in agreement with the mainland State Governments, set up the Australian Rail Track Corporation to manage and develop interstate rail as one entity. The whole 8,500 km of standard guage tracks has become more efficient, especially for the movement of freight. While the Western Australia to Eastern Australia rail lines developed as a part-business part-social promise to entice WA voters to join the Federation, the need for the Brisbane - Melbourne line had to earn more of its merits on truly business considerations.


3.6 km Trains

The Australian Rail Track Corporation has been appointed by the Federal Government to 'deliver' the Inland Rail. Ph 1800 732 761 community and landowner enquires. Ph (07) 3364 8900 general enquiries. At 40 Creek St Brisbane, GPO Box 2462 Brisbane 4001. Toowoomba office: 65 Neil St. Some 1200 km of existing 'brownfield' track 'corridor' will be used. But, in essence, most existing track needs considerable upgrades to handle the heavy container trains. Then some 500km will need entirely new 'greenfield' track 'corridor'.
A major part of this new 'greenfields' track goes through the Pocket Book zones for North Star to Yelarbon and for Yelarbon through to Inglewood. Some of these trains will be double stacked with containers. At first these trains will be some 1.8km long, but, in time, the technology should allow for 3.6 km long trains. So, when the parliamentarians speak of building 1700 km, truly this amount of work will essentially be undertaken, with builds and upgrades even where the rail already exists.
Politicians, as distinct from parliamentarians, do like to speak in the million-million bamboozle language; but their figures are impressive. At the peak of construction there will be 16,000 jobs. Local quarries will supply 26 million tons of, euphemistically, 'product'. There will be 1,600,000 concrete sleepers, give or take one or two. The ready mixed concrete boys will supply 480,000 cubic metres. There will be 130,000 tons of steel rail, and a further 130,000 tons of steel is expected to be used in other parts of the development. Then, a lot more cement goes into the 170,000 tons of pre-cast concrete box girders and bridge deck units. The 16 km of box culverts and pipes are for the small creeks and drainage. And they think that they should only need about 8 km of tunnels in the Toowoomba Range. (Since Brexit, we use the English tons, instead of the French tonnes. They are both almost equal in weight anyway.)


13 Rail Projects

The rail construction is divided into 13 distinct projects. Each has six distinct stages: Concept assessment, Project feasibility, Project assessment, Project approval, Construction, and then Operation. At 11th Nov 2017, most projects are only at the second stage of project feasibility, with two stages at project assessment.

1. Tottenham to Albury. 305 km. Tottenham is an inner western suburb of Melbourne. It's West Footscray rail yards have some 50 shunting points with main tracks leading to Yarra River wharves and out further to the Geelong Corio wharves. Albury is the first city over the border in NSW. At: Project feasibility.

2. Albury to Illabo. 185 km. The Illabo rail station opened in 1878, with a grain silo remaining in use, and about 190 people in the district. Project feasibility.

3. Illabo to Stockinbingal. 37 km of new track. Stockinbingal, with about 250 people, is a junction point connecting the Cootamundra to Lake Cargeligo rail line to Parkes, providing an new alternative to the steep grades of the rail over the Blue Mountains. Already freight trains from Perth prefer this new route to Sydney (althtough Perth Bris trains will prefer joining at Parkes). Project feasibility.

4. Stockinbingal to Parkes. 169 km. The settlement of Currajong was founded in 1853, and later renamed in 1873 to Parkes after Henry Parkes visited the town. Parkes has about 16,000 residents. Well known for its heavenly gazing observatory, Parkes also has terrestrial ambitions with over 600 ha zoned as "Parkes National Logistics Hub". FCL runs a significant intermodal operation at Goobang Junction, a western suburb of Parkes. When the Bris - Melb section is completed, this is where trains from Perth and Adelaide will also be joining to easily access Brisbane. This Specialised Container Transport's intermodal terminal, sitting on a 296 ha site, already has 5 km of rail sidings, over 7,000 sq m of warehouses and employs about 40 staff. Parkes is certainly getting ready for the addition of the inland Melb-Bris rail. Project feasibility.

5. Parkes to Narromine. 5 km of new track, and 107 km of upgraded track. Narromine from within its 4,000 people has produced personalities like cricket's Glenn McGrath & David Gillespie, sprinter Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, animator Adam Phillips, rugby league's Justin Smith and David Jansen in gliding. Although the few floods have produced little damage, much care will be taken by the rail engineers on this part of the route. Project assessment.

6. Narromine to Narrabri. 307 km of new track, being the major section of new track for the whole of the Melb-Bris line. Narrabri, population about 8,000, is the centre of areas for cotton, wheat, beef and lamb. All excellent products for export using the projected new rail services. Sending this product, with this cheaper rail transport, to Melbourne clothing mills will be part of 'import replacement'. A gas project is mooted for the area. Project feasibility.

7. Narrabri to North Star. 183 km. upgraded with 3 km of new track. Project assessment. North Star has about 330 people, with the current rail only serving the grain silo. The Sutton family arrived here in 1888. North Star is the first town within the Goondiwindi Pocket Book zone. See Tourist section on page 118 and Tourist Guide article on page 236.

8. North Star to NSW/Qld border. This is a quite short section of only about 50 km. North Star and Yetman are the main districts. Yetman is also within the Goondiwindi Pocket Book zone. Project feasibility.

9. NSW/Qld border to Gowrie. Here the project travels through The Yelarbon district, also with our Pocket Book zone. Don Cranney has seen very high floods, and trusts the engineers will be very careful. Bruce Steel, an insurance agent who knows very well the meaning of risk assessment, suggests that the rail should have gone to Karara and then up toward Gowrie. At Gowrie, just north of Toowoomba, the rail joins the existing northern rail line. Project feasibility. This Project is still very much in the design stages, with the alignment and route still very much under review. All of the rail from the NSW border right through to Acacia Ridge is being designed as double rail. This is two sets of tracks, allowing quite fast trains with no need for delays waiting in sidings. The most substantial benefit of this double rail will be for produce coming from southern Queensland into the capital of Brisbane.

10. Gowrie to Helidon. 26 km of new double track including a 6.4km tunnel.This project, along with projects 11 & 12, are designed to be Public Private Partnerships between the Queensland Government and private firms. Formal planning approvals processes have began for these three projects.

11. Helidon to Calvert. 47 km of new double track, with half in an existing train corridor. Then the rail crosses the Lockyer Valley flood plain and goes through the Little Liverpool Range with a 1 km tunnel. Project feasibility.

12. Calvert to Kagaru. This is 53 km of new double track, including 1.1 km of tunnel. This will connect the Inland Rail with the Sydney to Brisbane coastal line, and will move much freight away from some residential areas. Project feasibility.

13. Kagaru to Acacia Ridge and Bromelton. This 49 km of existing track will be upgraded to increase height clearance and allow double stacking. Project feasibility. Freight arriving at Acacia Ridge is generally deemed to have arrived in Brisbane, and can be off-loaded to its various suburban destinations. Some will go on the existing rail network through to the Brisbane Ports area.


Suggestions for better routes

These are the sections initially in the planning, and probably these will be built.


A) Extend to Brisbane Port proper

One state parliamentarian expressed the view to me that the new line essentially stops at Acacia Ridge, with the interstate containers continuing essentially on the Brisbane rail network to the Brisbane port. I exclaimed 'well this really means the line is designed to bring a flood of factory goods from Melbourne to the gretaer Brisbane population, with Queensland having a reasonable opportunity of sending tropical and subtropical fruit to Melbourne and Adelaide with a 24 hour journey'. As well as this 'city' section, some of our more experienced local farmers and businessmen do have real concerns about some country sections of the route.


B) Use Karara, instead of Pittsworth

For instance, insurance agent, Bruce Steel, says sending the route across the plains at Brookstead is in insurance parlance, 'fraught with risk' . He says the soft black soil is 20' to 30' deep, and that Millmerran Rd thereabouts is constantly under repair. Bruce feels that the engineers will have to create almost a dam effect in an effort to try to make the train track stable; he doubts that even this will be successful. Bruce feels that the track between Inglewood and Toowoomba should have been planned across the hard country of Karara and Leyburn and around to Pittsworth, with possibly only a small measure of soft country near Felton. His route would still use Yelarbon and Inglewood.
Mr Donald Cranney from Yelarbon, where the family has farmed for nearly one hundred years, has written numerous letters on these subjects of the unsuitability of crossing the deep black soils areas, and the problems about real floods he has personally witnessed, especially the major floods of 1956 and 1976. When Joe Bleike-Petersen built the Wivenhoe Dam he said if the 'flood compartment' is to save Brisbane from a flood, the engineers need to be knowledgebale in their profession and not subject to political interference. Well … Brisbane got flooded!! We all hope our rail engineers will complete a brilliant project.


C) Gladstone link

But Mr Cranney's concern is more that the main thrust of an inland rail should be a link to Gladstone. This is the issue I raised, using one of Mr Cranney's letters, with the Prime Minister in Caloundra. Mr Turnbull's reply is very important step toward an eventual line to Gladstone. His words are "… the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development is finalising a pre-feasibility study examining the economic and strategic viability of a potential future expansion of Inland Rail to Gladstone." Don Cranney feels that rather than the railway being just for manufactured goods from Melbourne, an extended line to Gladstone would truly allow the fertile areas of southern Australia to be a food bowl for Asia. Even though the earthquake and tidal wave which destroyed the Fukushima nuclear electricity plant happened in March 2011, the effect of the radiation is still destroying North Pacific fish stocks, and the severity of the problem may well still be increasing for several decades. Don's concept is that with exports through Gladstone, the six highways entering a Goondiwindi with full access to this suggested new rail, will create sufficient food demand to turn this area into an oasis of fruit and vegetable fields and intensive cattle paddocks. He would hope that the development of small crops would also encourage more of the youth to seek a future in farming. Mr Cranney points out that with the new coal mine approvals already in place at Wandoan, coal would essentially pay for the 450k of rail from Miles to Gladstone. The remaining 250km from Miles to Goondiwindi is through relatively solid, flat ground, making construction economical.
A Gladstone link could join this Melbourne-Brisbane rail just as it crosses over NSW-Qld border; this would come within ten km of Goondiwindi. Gladstone is also a Pocket Book zone. It is a major industrial hub, and calls itself "The Port City to the World." This probably is a little grand - maybe more Queensland's Port City to the World." In 1823 John Oxley explored Port Curtis and a settlement was briefly at Barney Point in 1847. The main settlement started in 1854. Some 21 years ago, in 1996, I was speaking with Tim Fischer at a reception in Gladstone. I pointed out the window to the junction of Dawson Rd and Goondoon St and said, "Tim, see that sign. It says Highway 39. That's right, this is the end of the inland highway starting at Seymour near Melbourne, and ending here, at Gladstone; not Brisbane, not Rockhampton, but Gladstone. The money (then being spent) on Hwy 39 would bring as much trade to Gladstone as to Melbourne."


D) The Darwin Link

After the Melbourne - Brisbane rail is built, one of original aims of the train enthusiast, Everald Compton, is to carry the rail through to Darwin via Gladstone, Mount Isa and Tennant Creek. We might well get Gladstone, with Cranneys short link from Goondiwndi to Miles, but the distance from Gladstone to Darwin is probably greater than the whole Melbourne to Brisbane route. Much of it is currently built. I think most likely the Melbourne Alice Springs Darwin rail be built well ahead of a Gladstone - Darwin rail. Yet, a few decades on and we will need Gladstone - Darwin.


E) Environmental Concerns

The Federal Government, along with the State Governments and the Australian Rail Track Corporation, is working through the various environmental concerns. Farmers, village residents, hamlets and cities enroute alike need to work with the agencies to ensure good outcomes for:

Air quality
Aquatic ecology,
Cultural heritage
Fauna ecology
Flora ecology,
Groundwater
Land use
Landscape amenity
Local Transport
Noise
Social outcomes
Socio-economic benefits
Soils and geology
Visual amenity
Water quality

I have two brothers who are great train and tram travellers. Tram is often called light rail. My brother, Lowen BA BD, an Ethicist to the Victorian Health Department, wrote the Sam the Tram books. My twin brother, Anthony, as part of his 35 years work as a migration agent helping people settle in Australia, has travelled on many of the great lines of the World, and recorded thousands of hours of train-travel videos. You can see these at:
https://www.facebook.com/Looking-Out-Train-Windows-And-Listening-To-Music-512985978865369/timeline/ and https://www.facebook.com/melbournebandsfromthe90s
Of course, now that this minor issue of an Inland Rail looks solved, let's see if we can fix two intractable power-control-freckish issues in Queensland. Let people eat snack food on trains, like every other state!!! And, let people have environmentally-friendly electric motors up to 2kw on their bicycles instead of just 250 watts; so that the electric power will at least get the bike going uphills and as well on the flat as a good muscle power.

Regards, Gerry Clarke


Letter received from Malcolm Turnbull:

* Methuselah is reported in the Bible to have been the oldest living man at 969 years of age.

Cover Photo: Photo credit to ARTC, 2015, 'Melbourne to Brisbane' Sept 2015, Author, Australian Government.

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