Inland Rail ‘missing link’: Big plans for disused Brisbane quarry

Utilising a disused southside quarry during the connection of the Port of Brisbane to Inland Rail could not only get trucks off local roads but would also be beneficial to the quarry’s rehabilitation.

Launching tunnel boring machines from a disused quarry on Brisbane’s southside could speed up its rehabilitation by decades and clamp down on any construction impacts while the Port of Brisbane is connected to Inland Rail, the owner has claimed.

BMI Group director Balfour Irvine said spoil from digging the ‘Missing Link’ freight tunnel could be used to fill his company’s Pine Mountain Road Quarry in Mount Gravatt East.

At the current rate of rehabilitation, it could take 25 years for the land to be completely rehabilitated.

But plans revealed by Mr Irvine and National Trunk Rail show that by launching the tunnel boring machines from the disused quarry, excavated material could take up to 250,000 trucks off Brisbane’s roads during construction and would speed the mine’s rehabilitation up by years.

BMI Group owner Balfour Irvine, NTR Director Jon Grayson and Herrenknecht Australia Managing Director Charles Howarth at the Pine Mountain Rd cleanfill site. Picture: Nigel Hallett

“If this project happens it’ll finalise (rehabilitation) very quickly,” Mr Irvine said.

“It would mean a quarter of a million truckloads of tunnelling material wouldn’t have to leave the site,” he said.

Mr Irvine also revealed he had preliminary approval to build 500 residences on the quarry site once it was rehabilitated, which could be brought forward if the tunnel is built there.

Located smack bang between the Port of Brisbane and Acacia Ridge, where Inland Rail terminates, Mr Irvine said plans had already been drawn up to use the Pine Mountain Road Quarry.

Plans for the ‘Missing Link’ tunnel at a disused quarry.

“It’s a unique location, in the sense that there’s no other location between Acacia Ridge and the Port that you could tunnel from (without mass disruption),” he said.

The Sunday Mail’s Missing Link campaign has highlighted the push for a dedicated freight tunnel that could take up to 2.4 million trucks off the road.

Currently, just 2.5 per cent of freight into the Port of Brisbane arrives by rail - a significant lag behind other Australian capitals.

National Trunk Rail board director Jon Grayson said launching tunnel boring machines from White’s Hill, surrounded by bushland, would minimise disruption to southside suburbs.

Mr Grayson said the plot of land was large and relatively free of any conflicting infrastructure, which made it ideal for tunnelling.

“The tunnels through this site avoids the community issue of noise and dust,” he said.

“That’s a problem that exists with (freight) trains going through Yeronga and Morningside.”