The Wheatbelt Railway Rention Alliance is determined to support the Western Australian agricultural industry and Wheatbelt communities by keeping grain on rail. The Alliance members include 27 local governments;
The Shire of York; Beverley; Quairading; Bruce Rock; Narembeen; Kulin; Kondinin; Koorda: Lake Grace; Corrigin; Cuballing; Wickepin; Dumbleyung; Trayning; Cunderdin; Narrogin (Town and Shire); Nungarin; Mukinbudin; Merredin; Mount Marshall; Yilgarn; City of Fremantle; Town of East Fremantle: Town of Kwinana; Shire of Mundaring.
The WA Farmers Zones all 17 including Corrigin, Lake Grace, Upper Great Southern, Merredin, Avon and North Eastern.
The Alliance is also supported by;
RACWA, Curtin University Road Accident Research Centre, Wheatbelt South WALGA RoadWise Programme, Professor Peter Newman, Roadside Conservation Committee, Fremantle Road to Rail Group, Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas Wildflower Society of WA, Narrogin Environmental Action Team Inc, Farm Power Pty. Ltd, Roe Tourism and the Helena Valley Estate Residents Association
If you would like to support the Wheatbelt Railway Retention Alliance please contact Jane Fuchsbichler, WRRA Coordinator on PH (08) 9046 9050 or 0427 469 050
Bill Cowan, WRRA President PH (08) 9061 6012 or 0428 840 960
Kevin Jones, WRRA Vice President PH (08) 9046 9012 or 0428 469 012
HOW CAN YOU HELP? If you are interested in membership please contact Jane. Why not write a letter or email of support to your local member using the SGoR-letter template or find us on Facebook and Twitter @savegrain
Hi,
I have noted a massive increase of grain trucks using the Roe Highway, Kwinana Freeway and even the odd one on The Mitchell Freeway over the last twelve months and I think it’s about time changes were introduced to save and even expand the railway system back to where it was, but to achieve this just moving grain will not do the trick. Remember the ‘ Grain lines’ were built to service the country towns with general freight and became grain lines when the Government of the day decided that unloading freight at every country town was too much trouble and too costly so it was moved to the road. Trucks are basically containers on wheels, imagine for one moment if every container that arrived in Fremantle from overseas had to be on a truck, it doesn’t because we have developed unloading systems that move containers quickly and efficiently, even by large fork lift trucks. Now imagine if there was a method of unloading containers at most country towns that have railways, the container could be unloaded in minutes and the train could carry on to it’s destination. Therefore the train could take general freight in one direction and return with grain in the other. I would suggest that as much as 70% of trucks leaving the Metropolitan area or coming from he country travel half their journey empty, this amounts to a huge waste of fuel carting nothing but air! Add this to road upkeep, trauma, and there is a great need to get all freight back on the rails.
Philip A.Arlidge
Totally agree, even go to the next step and power the rail using solar power
I completely support the retention of the railway system for grain transport. Even though the traffic is seasonal, it represents a very large amount of material to be moved to the loading points and the idea of using trucks is totally negative it today’s world.
The damage to roads would cost a great deal to repair each year and damaged roads are very dangerous at the higher speeds used on country roads.
The use of huge quantities of fuel and the resulting CO2 produced are completly against modern ideas of conservation of scarce resources and protection of the environment.
If the State Government had spent some timely money on maintenance of the rail tracks we would not be in a position where the costs are now much higher.
The first stage in Govts want to get rid of a rail line is maintenance is deferred, if they are able to continue this it becomes easier to shut down the line by citing its condition and how much scarce funds would be needed to ” bring it up to standard”.
Keep an eye on the bastards, keep ‘em honest.
I am the Grand Orchestrator of the Fremantle Environmental Resource Network , or FERN as it is affectionately referred to in Freo. We have 5000 plus members of community and visitors from other lands come through our gates every month. We are all about sustainable lifestyles and environment in any form that works to the benefit of humanity, while doing our best to promote diversity. We are on the highway which services the port of Fremantle and I can assure you we know what trucks sound like here. We have a rooster who cant hear himself crow much of the time. Went outside to the site of a car on its side on our intersection a couple of days ago, and luckily no one was injured, but it was really close considering we have a double bogie tri-axle combo truck every 30 seconds on usual day. We are truly over government road policy and all for pushing the rail, light rail, heavy rail, commuter subway tunnels, whatever it takes to make it safer and more user friendly in the city and I know you dont need subways out in the country, but it makes sense that these government departments be taught that to realise they are the suppliers of services for the clients ( which is the citizens by the way.) If they want to be sure that if the global system goes to pot, then it is only wise to have farmers who can still get their produce to the hopefully not so hungry people in the city. If they don’t look after the needs of the producers then there is going to be no way to get food and no food to get in the case of peak oil, or restriction in fuel supply. In any case there is a community consultation meeting in which we plan to stop the government pushing local community around with all their plans which make no sense. The meeting is on 2nd March at the Fremantle Town Hall on Williams st around the back up the white spiral staircase. Starts at 3:30pm and goes til 5:30pm. FERN and the SOUPI Crew will be supplying refreshments (tea and non alcoholic raw smoothies etc ) . We have a petition running to get the government to support transport options for local communities and around Fremantle and we believe they have to make far better sustainable transport decisions from this point on. Best regards and love from FERN