Railways and ports

Land acquisition has commenced.

If you would like a comprehensive report, please go to the Surat Basin Railway website and also the website of ATEC Rail Group.

I am also Chairman of a company called Tenement to Terminal Ltd, which has acquired 130 hectares of land at the Port of Gladstone on which a privately-owned coal terminal will be built with a 75 million tonne capacity and opened in 2016. It will handle coal from smaller mines in the Surat, Bowen and Galilee Basins that have considerable difficulty in competing with major companies to gain capacity at coal terminals.

Interest in this project is quite extraordinary.

There are wild accusations being made about the contamination of fish in Gladstone Harbour. The story broke on the ABC’s Four Corners Program, and it was highly selective and very biased - as they were previously with their program on Indonesian abattoirs.

The fact is that fish all along the Queensland coastline, not just Gladstone, are similarly inflicted, mainly because last year’s massive flooding washed thousands of fish out of the fresh water of dams into hostile sea water conditions.

While I have no doubt that the overall activities of humanity, socially and industrially, are causing contamination everywhere in Australia, I know of no coal or gas companies at Gladstone that are deliberately setting-out to destroy the environment by implementing any shortcuts in their construction programs, nor are the Queensland and Federal Governments being lax in setting strong environmental standards and carrying out their fundamental responsibilities of supervision.

Can I also report to you that Australia’s railways got a huge boost last month when Tim Fisher returned home after serving a distinguished term as Australia’s Ambassador to the Vatican? He is now free to takeup once again his lifelong passion for railways and become their premier advocate, as no-one that I know has more knowledge of Australia’s rail needs or a wider range of friends and contacts among all political leaders than Tim.