Brookfield Corporation has snapped up $132 million in dividends from Western Australia’s vast freight rail network as the state government tries to take back control of the train tracks, two decades before the Canadian group’s lease expires.

Some 5500 kilometres of WA’s freight rail network were privatised in 2000, and have been operated by Brookfield since 2010 after the giant investment group, which manages more than $1 trillion in assets globally, acquired Prime Infrastructure, a former Babcock & Brown entity.