Australian Inland Rail Expressway: a century of planning

It was in 1887 that a railway from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria was first planned, roughly following the Burke and Wills route. It foundered through a lack of co-operation amongst the three States through which it was to pass. This, combined with the economic recession of 1893, was sufficient to put it on the back burner for fifty years.

In 1942, General Douglas Macarthur proposed to build a rail link from Cloncurry to Darwin for the defence of Australia. Even though he proposed to build it free of charge to Australia using American Steel and Labour, it was rejected by the Australian Government.

A Victorian, Sir Harold Clapp, took it up again in 1949. He actually persuaded the Chifley Government to agree to build a defence railway from Melbourne to Darwin via Bourke, Longreach and Cloncurry and the Cabinet passed a minute authorising its detailed planning.

But, it lapsed when Chifley lost the 1949 Election and the States would not co-operate with the new Government. The Snowy Mountains Project gained its life as alternative.

In the 1960’s, Sir Garfield Barwick took it up, but the Holt Government declined to take it any further. They didn’t think it was important to the development of Australia.

In the 1980’s, two eminent engineers, Dr Ken Davidson of Toowoomba and Professor Lance Endersbee of Melbourne, working separately, revived the concept. Subsequently, Ross Miller, then Mayor of Toowoomba, and Barry Donaldson of the Progressive Rail Association in Southern New South Wales did extensive work on it. But, again, no governments were prepared to put their weight behind it.

Then, in November 1996, a group of business leaders led by Everald Compton of Brisbane, met in Sydney and decided to undertake the project using private capital.

Their company, Australian Transport and Energy Corridor Ltd (ATEC), now has the "in principle" support of the Governments of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and the Commonwealth as well as the support of the Opposition in all of those five Parliaments. ATEC has received similar support from sixty local governments along the route.

In conjunction with, Abigroup Ltd, who are supported by Obayashi Corporation and Macquarie Bank, ATEC plans to build the Railway in six sections, each to be owned by a Community Infrastructure Corporation.

The aim is to "drive the first spike" of the first section of the railway into the ground on the banks of the MacIntyre River on the border of Queensland and New South Wales at Midnight on 31 December, 2000, to mark the beginning of a new millennium of development for Australia.

Most Australians believe that a century of planning has been long enough. The time has now come for the creation of Australia’s "Steel Mississippi.

Scope Of The Project

Throughout 1997 and 1998 and continuing through 1999, the Directors of Australian Transport & Energy Corridor Ltd (ATEC) have held many meetings with Ministers and Members of the five Parliaments involved in the creation of the Australian Inland Rail Expressway. Since June 1998, ATEC has been joined by Abigroup Ltd, and associated companies, in advancing the Project.

At those meetings, ATEC has stated that its Directors and Shareholders intend to achieve these aims:

1. We will work for the creation of a Transport and Energy Corridor from Melbourne to Darwin via Shepparton, the Riverina, Parkes, Dubbo, Moree, Goondwindi, Toowoomba, Miles, Moura, Emerald, Aramac, Hughenden, Cloncurry and Mt Isa to Tennant Creek, where it would meet and share the track of the Australasian Railway from Adelaide to Darwin.
2. We will work also for the creation of linking corridors to coastal urban centres including Sydney, Brisbane, Gladstone, Townsville and the Kimberley. We plan that the Corridor itself should be owned, in the most appropriate way, by the people of Australia, not by a private corporation such as ATEC. We want to cause a high speed Railway for both freight and passengers to be built and operated as the first of several public infrastructures within the Corridor on appropriate terms negotiated with the owners of the Corridor.
3. We will initiate and co-ordinate other consortiums to develop other public infrastructures within the Corridor including these projects: Gas Pipeline, Electric Power Cable, Water Pipelines, Fibre Optic Cable, Road Expressway.
4. We are prepared to co-ordinate our project with the successful tenderer for the Adelaide/Darwin Railway to ensure that both projects are established at the same time.
5. We plan to build the railway in six sections, each being economically and commercially viable in its own right. We envisage that each of the six sections will be established by a Community Infrastructure Corporation which is owned and controlled by the stakeholders in the railway for that region, i.e., six Corporations which will have the widest possible range of shareholders who will be users of the line for freight and passenger services. Their capital will be supplemented by equity from a public float and debt from capital markets. Each Corporation will have a Management Company with specialised expertise in the operation of a profitable railway and other infrastructure services.
6. We will establish Inland Rail Expressway Actions Groups in communities along the Corridor to ensure there is widespread community participation in the project, particularly with regard to planning for industrial development. We plan that, during the current session of the Federal Parliament, work will commence on the acquisition of the Corridor through the establishment of the Australian Inland Trust.

The People Involved

Those behind this project are ordinary Australians who want to make a real impact on the future history of our nation by realising a project which is needed and achievable. It is not our original idea. That honour belongs to others. We just want to make it happen.

The Directors of ATEC are:

• Everald Compton, recently retired as the worlds longest serving fund raising consultant and now a full time company director whose experience and skills lie in the field of negotiations.
• Tim Fairfax, a descendent of Australia’s most famous publishing family and now a director of Rural Press Ltd as well as owning and managing several large grazing properties in NSW and Queensland.
• Albert Hakfoort, a resident of Mt Isa. He owns property interests in Mt Isa and hotels in Brisbane, Toowoomba, Gladstone and Goodna. He is also Chairman of the Inland Rail Expressway Action Group in Mt Isa.
• Stephen Loosley, a former Senator of the Australian Parliament and now a partner of the Sydney Law Firm of Dunhill Madden Butler. Well known as a newspaper and magazine columnist.
• Don Mcdonald, a well known Queensland Grazier whose family have several properties in the Gulf and Channel Country Regions. A Director of CSIRO, Kidston Gold and other public companies.
• Peter Smaller, Chairman of the Southern Steel Group and President of the Steel Institute of Australia. A decade ago, he and his family migrated from South Africa where they held significant industrial interests.

In addition to the Directors, these people have key roles:-

• Tony Clark, John Valder, Alastair Stone and Denis Pidcock of Sydney and Cliff Breeze and Doug Shears of Melbourne are Shareholders.
• Alastair Stone is the Project Director.