State Government ministers announce $2m study into Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor

State government ministers spruik a $2m study into a rail corridor, but Robbie Katter is unimpressed, believing it will not solve freight issues.

An Aurizon train heads east to the Port of Townsville near Hughenden. Picture: Scott Radford-Chisholm.

The state government has acknowledged that rail freight volumes on the 1000km Mount Isa railway corridor needs improvement, and it would spend money investigating how it would increase these loads as it capitalises on international demand for critical minerals.

The rail corridor is a significant artery between the resources of the North West Minerals Province such as copper, lead, zinc, and rare earths and the overseas markets, but for years outback based KAP leader Robbie Katter has raged about its neglect, overpriced costs directed at customers, and roadtrains’ overreliance of the Flinders Highway.

The corridor also passes through a flood-plain and is frequently blocked during heavy wet seasons.

These concerns recently prompted the interim Mount Isa chief executive Tim Rose as well as mining representatives to suggest, at different meetings, a long-held proposal of building an alternative Northern Territory railway instead of product being exported from the Port of Townsville.

Richmond Mayor John Wharton also has suggested an “Inland Port” which could maintain consistency of resource supply during floods.

Minister for Transport and Main Roads Bart Mellish announced there would be further investigation into the Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor. Picture: Liam Kidston

Transport and Main Roads Minister Bart Mellish said the department would be receiving feedback from the industry about the challenges of freight, and the restrictions that discouraged small and medium level critical minerals producers.

It would also spend $2m through the Queensland Transport and Roads Investment Program from the coming financial year until 2027-28 to re-examine the feasibility of the Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor.

The last business case completed seven years ago connecting the rail freight corridor between the North Coast Line directly to the Port of Townsville would be updated to examine the economic feasibility of the based up current freight demand.

Senator Anthony Chisholm and Townsville Enterprise CEO Claudia Brumme-Smith looks on as State Resources Minister Scott Stewart speaks at a recent mining conference about the industry. Picture: Chris Burns

“The Mount Isa rail line freight corridor is key to supporting Queensland’s critical minerals sector access export markets,” Mr Mellish said.

“Moving freight from road to rail offers additional flow-on benefits in terms of road safety, road infrastructure management and reducing carbon emissions from reduced heavy vehicle usage.”

Mr Katter described the investigation as a “tokenistic money dump” and said it would not resolve the problem.

Queensland Member for Traeger Robbie Katter would like to see more freight distributed by rail between Townsville and Mount Isa. It is a concern that he has expressed to media for years, and he said he has discussed it with five transport ministers since he became a state politician. Picture: Supplied.

This problem was that mining companies were increasingly discouraged from paying the fees needed to use the rail line.

“On any given day, only 50 per cent of the capacity is used on the Mount Isa line, meaning a potential to double the amount of freight currently being moved,” Mr Katter said.

“More and more freight is hitting the bitumen, not rail, due mostly to the policy settings of the Queensland Government.”

A section of the Mount Isa to Townsville railway corridor.

Mr Katter said he had raised these concerns with five different transport ministers since he became a state parliamentarian in 2012.

It estimated the cost of the rail line’s resilience improvements and track renewals to be $50m, and most of this was allocated in the following financial year.

At a recently held mining forum in Townsville, Resources Minister Scott Stewart referred to the challenges and the investment of the rail corridor.

“Now, we are investing into our infrastructure, for example widening the port channel at a cost of over $250m that will attract those larger ships that will be able to export those products,” Mr Stewart said.

“I’m not just talking about those commodities.

“This is about the downstream manufacturing of things like vanadium redox flow batteries that will be able to mine the vanadium here and export out through the port.

“And that will only happen with the investment into the infrastructure.”

Originally published as State Government ministers announce $2m study into Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor