Premier Jacinta Allan locks in tunnelling machines from China to carve out Suburban Rail Loop
Premier Jacinta Allan has scored boring machines from China to tunnel out Melbourne’s SRL, boasting companies in a country with “rail loops everywhere” is investing in her pet project.
Premier Jacinta Allan has locked in tunnelling machines from China to carve out the Suburban Rail Loop, boasting that Chinese companies are investing in her pet project.
Ms Allan will shake hands with Chinese industry leaders over the tunnelling deal at a construction site in Deyang, near Chengdu, on Friday, securing the final four tunnel boring machines (TBMs) needed to drive home the estimated $34.5bn project.
The massive machines will be built in Zhengzhou before arriving in Melbourne where they will carve out twin tunnels between Glen Waverley and Box Hill.
The deal is part of a $1.7bn contract awarded to Terra Verde – a global consortium of Webuild, GS Engineering and Construction, and Bouygues Construction Australia – to deliver the section of the twin tracks.
More than $5.5bn in contracts has already been signed for the mega project, despite it currently facing a $20bn black hole.
On her final day in China, Premier Jacinta Allan – who desperately needs funding for the rail loop – will promote the done deal.
“Chinese companies are investing in the SRL – and Victorian workers are building it,” she will say.
“Why shouldn’t we aspire to a public transport system like China’s? They have fast trains and rail loops everywhere.”
In Beijing on Monday, Ms Allan caused a stir when she was asked whether there would be any Chinese investment.
“We’ll be having more to say over the course of this week,” she said.
Ms Allan, however, denied that she was looking for any Chinese investment to help fund Victoria’s most expensive rail project.
In Shanghai on Thursday, Ms Allan also refused to weigh in on warnings from China that Australia was being “two faced” as it benefited from trade with China while supporting US-led security pacts like AUKUS.
Questioned about comments in The China Daily newspaper Ms Allan said she hadn’t seen the comments because she was focused on “supporting the very strong and historic friendship and relationship we have with China”.
Unveiling her “China Strategy”, a blueprint for relations and business dealings with China, Ms Allan said she’d made the more than 18,000km round trip to “seal the deal” on investment for public transport and renewable energy investment.
She has repeatedly said she wants Victoria to be the “first port of call” for Chinese businesses to invest.
However, Victoria’s ruthless tax regime – a desperate effort to halt the $194bn debt bomb expected by 2029 – is forcing overseas investors to look to Sydney and Brisbane instead, leading property figures have warned.
The government has also been warned that the SRL could put the state’s credit rating, which has already been downgraded twice, at risk.
The new TBMs will be supplied by tunnelling giant China Railway Engineering Equipment Group (CREG) which is currently carving out a major suburban train line in Deyang.
Launched from Burwood next year, two TBMs will tunnel south from Burwood to Glen Waverley and two will head north towards Box Hill.
Four other TBMs, supplied by German company Herrenknecht, will tunnel the southern section of tunnels between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley.
In Shanghai, Ms Allan posed for photos with Chinese singer and actor Wu Chun who has been brought on as a Visit Victoria ambassador tasked with selling the state to millions of Chinese tourists.
The Premier is hoping to almost double the number of yearly visitors from China from 411,000 to 800,000 by 2029.
On Thursday, RMIT University and the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (SUIBE) also officially commenced the formal process to form a Joint Institute, bringing Australian-accredited programs to Chinese students.
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