Whitsundays Public 'Heavies' push for Northern Missing Link

View Whitsundays Events and Incidents Map in a larger map7th May 2008
Whitsundays Online

A delegation from North Qld, lead by Whitsunday Mayor, Mike Brunker, converged on George St, Mackay yesterday to stress the urgency of the Northern Missing Link to the State Government.

The delegation also included John Finlay (CEO Whitsunday Regional Council), Rebecca Andrews (CEO, Enterprise Whitsunday), Narelle Pearse (CEO, REDC), John Bearne (Chair, Townsville Enterprise), Trevor Goldstone (CEO, Townsville Enterprise) and Mick Crowe (Director, G&S Engineering).

The group addressed the Transport Minister, Rachel Nolan, the Infrastructure & Planning Minister, Sterling Hinchcliff, and the Co-Ordinator General Colin Jensen, and a number of other senior officials.

REDC CEO, Ms Narelle Pearse, says that overall the meeting was positive, with the Government confirming that the Northern Missing Link was a State Government priority.

Ms Pearse asked the State Government to provide leadership in this project in order to accelerate the timeframes and outcomes.


“In the current economic climate there are major industry concerns about the future of coal. The Government needs to take a lead role in projects such as the Northern Missing link in order to instil confidence in the future of coal mining in Queensland, which will ultimately recover from the global financial crisis, and potentially put us into a second boom.”

“It is vital that enabling infrastructure such as the Northern Missing Link are constructed ahead of demand, otherwise we will be in the same situation we were seven years ago.”

Mick Crowe from G&S Engineering stressed the importance of the project for Qld jobs. “The Northern Missing Link is not just about coal. It is about Queensland people and Queensland jobs. This project has the ability to re-employ displaced workers in our region in the short term. The project will also secure Government revenue in the future to assist in the repayment of the current debt.”


Original Press Release from the Mackay Whitsundays REDC in PDF
Previous article on the Northern Missing Link
Video by QRhuggies 4 September 2007

Steel smelters destined for the Whitsundays?

An ambitious $16 billion proposal to build a heavy freight railway line from Abbot Point (Bowen) QLD, to Port Headland Western Australia, could see the development of a super port and heavy industrial city within or near the Whitsundays.

If the project gets the 'go ahead', it will definatly mean that the Abbot Point part of the project will see massive heavy industrial development adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef.



Project Iron Boomerang (East West Line Parks Pty Ltd) is proceeding with further study to establish first stage iron and steel smelters:

• near Newman Fortescue River Valley in Western Australia (WA) and at Abbot Point Precinct in Queensland (QLD) (near Bowen, N-Qld).
• linked by a new heavy gauge railway line
  • over 3,300 kilometres
  • West to East
  • from Port Hedland (spur to Dampier) in WA to Abbot Point in QLD
  • linking Australia's export iron ore - coking/thermal coal mines
• will also utilise both the sustainable and abundant natural gases available
  • coal seam methane gas in Queensland
  • natural gas in Western Australia

The shipping of iron ore to several steel smelters at Abbot Point may also depend on the Missing Northern Link rail project (Moranbah to Newlands/Collinsville) going ahead, or it may be included in the works project.

If the project is completed, it is proposed that 33 million tonnes of iron ore and 20 million tonnes of coal will be sent by rail from Moranbah annually to the smelters at Abbot Point, and then exporting 22 million tonnes of steel from Abbot Point every year.

If this and the proposed Aluminium smelter for Abbot Point go ahead, there will also be a need for a power station as well to supply the huge amounts of electricity required - more than likely this will be coal or gas powered.

More on this story at Transport and Logistics News
Full report (in PDF format) on Project Iron Boomerang
East West Line Parks Pty Ltd - Project Iron Boomerang website
Project Iron Boomerang Powerpoint presentation
Missing Northern Link update
Images from Project Iron Boomerang

Editors note:
* When the winds blow in the Whitsundays, it is mostly from the south east. However, around 5-10% of the time the winds blow from the N-NW, thus sending any possible air pollution from Abbot Point down through the whole Whitsundays region.
* It would cost around $10-12 billion dollars to build a plant/smelters to produce around 22 million tonnes of steel slab annually.
* If the average train carries 7,000 tonnes, this means that there will be an additional heavy freight train going through Collinsville every 30 minutes.
* By comparison, the Port Kembla (Illawarra) Steel works (image below) produces 5 million tonnes a year.
* 4 Corners (ABC TV) report on the current social issues in the Illawarra (NSW) of a heavy industrial town in recession.
* Could the decision to stall construction of the Northern Missing Link by QR have been made because of this proposal by East West to build the line?

Whitsundays to become World's Biggest Coal Port

The Whitsunday's Abbot Point is to increase its export capacity to become the world's biggest coal harbor. 

North Queensland Bulk Ports Corp intends to develop additional terminals and expand export capacity over 1000% to over 220 million metric tons of coal a year. The harbor is currently being enlarged from 21 million tons now to 50 million tons in 2011

BHP Billiton and Hancock Coal won preferred status recently to develop two additional terminals at Abbot Point that will take export capacity to 110 million metric tons.

North Queensland Bulk Ports Corp., Chief Executive Officer Brad Fish said in an interview with Bloomberg; "If you were to fast forward about 10 years, it’s not impossible to imagine that there could be four or five coal terminals sitting at the port of Abbot Point; that would make it, by a country mile, the largest coal port in the world."

Abbot Point is 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Bowen, and 100km NW of Hamilton Island, and currently has one terminal. The port shipped 14.4 million tons and 176 vessels in the year ending June 30, 2009, according to the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corp website.

Hamilton Island is about 1,100 kilometers north of Brisbane, the Queensland state capital.

Biggest Ports

Newcastle (NSW) port is the world's biggest export harbor for coal. It has a capacity of 113 million tons and is being increased to 163 million tons by 2012.

Port Waratah Coal Services, operator of two of the three terminals at Newcastle, said it received planning approval from the state government to develop additional infrastructure, including a fourth vessel loader, that will help increase the harbor’s total export capacity to 175 million tons.

South Africa's Richards Bay, has increased its capacity to 91 million tons. Dalrymple Bay, just 100km to the south of Hamilton Island, has the capacity to export 85 million tons a year. Gladstone shipped more than 58 million tons in 2009.

"The real advantage Abbot Point has over some other locations is that it’s the most northern coal port," Fish said in the interview with Bloomberg. "When you’re comparing with Hay Point, Gladstone, or Newcastle, it's either a day or two, or up to four or five days closer to the Asian customers."

Port and rail infrastructure in Queensland is being expanded as coal producers develop mines to tap global demand.

Development of the A$1.1 billion Northern Missing Link, which started last month (Map), is targeted for completion by January 2012. The 69-kilometer rail line will allow producers in the Bowen Basin, including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group, to ship coal through Abbot Point.

"This will open a whole new transport corridor for coal companies, giving them a huge increase in export capacity for their existing mines and for future mining developments in the region," Premier Bligh said on April 8 this year

Whitsundays News Footnote:
Hamilton Island will be in the unique position of being in the middle of the two biggest coal export harbours in the World - Abbot Point 100km to the north west, and Dalrymple Bay 100km to the south.


Sourced from Bloomberg:
Editors: Jane Lee, Ang Bee Lin.


Related Stories:
2 June 2009 - Abbot Point Terminal for sale
28 May 2009 - New 2 ship berth for coal at Abbot Point
26 April 2009 - Steel smelters for the Whitsundays?
22 April 2009 - QR hits back at stalled 'Missing Link'

QR hits back at stalled 'Missing Link'.

Owen Jacques | 22nd April 2009
The Morning Bulletin
QUEENSLAND Rail (QR) has hit back at criticism over the decision to stall the Northern Missing Link rail project, claiming it would be financially irresponsible to proceed in the current economic climate.

QR executive general manager Mike Carter has addressed the company's critics in a letter to the editor on Page 9 of today's Daily Mercury.

The Queensland Government-owned company has faced strong opposition to the halting of the project that would connect the Goonyella rail system to the Abbot Point Coal Terminal near Bowen.

Mackay region community leaders said the project should go ahead to ensure the crippling rail bottleneck problems of the past

few years were not repeated and to create much-needed jobs.

Full story at The Morning Bulletin

QR GM Letter to the editor of the Daily Mercury

Environmental Impact Statements
Collinsville, Briaba Bank. Video by QRhuggies 4 September 2007.
Images courtesy QRNetwork

New 2 ship berth for coal at Abbot Point

View Whitsundays Events and Incidents Map in a larger map
Whitsundays Online

Waratah Coal has announced that they and their partner, 'China First' "will include 490kms of standard gauge, heavy haul railway line and a 40 million tonne per annum, two-berth export terminal at Abbot Point near Bowen.

However, the new rail line is to be built from Alpha to Shoalwater Bay, just north of Rockhampton, (site of the AUS-USA military excercises every 2 years).

According to the map provided by Waratah Coal, the coal will travel through Moranbah or Rocky, then 40 million tonnes of coal a year will travel over the existing rail network through Bloomsbury, Proserpine, Bowen and then Abbot Point.

Waratah Coal's website
The original map image from Waratah Coal has been modified to show the proposed 'Northern Missing Link'.

Editors Note: If each coal train carries 7,000 tonnes, that means 5,700 full coal trains (+ return journey's) a year, or 220 more trains a week. However, if the 'Northern Missing Link' between Moranbah and Newlands is built, this would then be the shortest route to Abbot Point.

Coal trains blocked by Protesters at Collinsville

Media - You are free to use this copy and images - please give us some credit if you do : WhitsundaysOnline.Net (website currently having issues)

UPDATE Wed 28 July 2010 - Activists end Collinsville rail line blockade

Original Story Tue 27 July 2010

At 5pm this afternoon, protesters were continuing to block the Collinsville - Newlands railway line which feeds Abbot Point Port. At the time, the protest had been going for 6 hours, and the feeling amongst the protesters is that they are willing to stay as long as it takes . . . . (*click images to enlarge - you are free to use them without modification, but please give credit to whitsundaysonline.net).

The residents of Collinsville (Whitsundays Regional Council) want firm assurances that the railway line will be diverted around Collinsville as part of the lines sale in the Queensland Government Asset Sale.

The railway line going through Collinsville is purely for coal - from the mines in Scotttvile, Newlands and in between. The coal travels on the line to Abbot Point Port - also to be sold off by the Bligh Government.

The residents argue that currently the trains take up to 13 minutes to clear the railway crossing which divides the East and West (main)  parts of Collinsville.

This is becoming a serious issue not only with the towns people, the mines, and the rural folk east of the line, but it has also become an issue with the emergency services.

So why protest now? Well, the protesters want the line diverted around Collinsville before the "Northern Missing Link" is completed, which will see the amount of train movements through Collinsville increase ten fold, or more.

The amount of train movements means the crossing at Collinsville will probably be closed to traffic more than it is open.

There will also be the constant train engine noise plus rumbles, scrapes, pings and clatter that goes with 2km long trains, not just to Abbot Point, but also back again.

The protesters have set up two camps - on the North Eastern side of the crossing, and the main camp on the South Western side. The Police have setup camp about 100m north of the main protester's camp, on the west (town) side of the railway line.

The protesters have halted a full northbound train about 50m south of the crossing. An empty southbound coal train is stationary about 20km north of Collinsville.
The protesters are dug in for an expected long haul. They are adamant they will not be moving until they get assurances from Premier Bligh.

While it was damp and a bit miserable, the spirits of the Collinsville locals were extremely high - the main camp appeared to have a BBQ style of atmosphere . . . friendly but with a purpose.

I would say there was one police officer for every 1 and a half protesters. Everyone appeared to be we supplied and catered, and toilet facilities.

Collinsville is on the western fringe of the Whitsundays Regional Council. 100km 'as the crow flies' west of Airlie Beach, but around a two hour drive via Bowen.

It is a small rural village that has transformed into a mining town in the last decade, serving the Scottville & Newlands mines, but also Collinsville Power Station and Burdekin Dam.

Missing in the Whitsundays

If I was a local producer providing resources and money to WMD's (Whitsunday Marketing and Development) 'Made in the Whitsundays' campaign, I would be wondering if WMD (ex Tourism Whitsundays) is really committed to the project.

You would think that after spending hundred's of thousands of dollars on websites and promotions, WMD and its 'webmaster' would be more diligent in noticing that the link to the 'Made in the Whitsundays' website hasn't worked for some time.

What's in the Budget for the Whitsundays

Whitsundays Online

The Federal 2009-10 Budget was presented tonightby the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, delivering an almost $60 billion deficit.

It appears the Capital Cities have 'scored' all of the $3.2 billion in rail funding, with no mention of federal funding for the Missing Northern Link Railway (between Moranbah and Collinsville).

It also appears that no extra money has been allocated to expand Abbot Point.

Surprisingly, single Pensioners were probably the biggest winners -they will receive an extra $32 a week, however couples will only receive an extra $10 a week.

I have editied sections from tonights actual Budget Papers on items that may have an impact on the Whitsundays.

Bruce Hwy
Projects to be completed along the Bruce Highway include an upgrade to the southern approach towards Mackay, significant safety upgrades in far north Queensland (including 60 overtaking lanes between Curra and Cairns and additional rest areas) and the Cardwell Range realignment.

Health
$250 million for the Townsville Hospital in Queensland

Social and Defense Housing
The Government has also committed $252 million for Defence Housing Australia to construct 802 new homes for Australian Defence Force personnel and their families. The new housing will be located to support Defence bases across several regions, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin, the Hunter Valley, Townsville and Ipswich.

Renewable Remote Power Generation - $6.7 million (down from 11.7 million) to QLD Govt to fund Renewable Remote Power Generation program which provides financial support to increase the use of renewable generation in remote parts of Australia that presently rely on fossil fuel for electricity supply.

World sailing championships - The Commonwealth will provide $2.0 million to Western Australia in 2009‑10 to contribute to the successful staging of the International Sailing Federation World Championships in Western Australia in December 2011.

The population of QLD is around 4,356,000, and Australia is 21,623,000.

You can view the Australian Commonwealth Government's 2009-2010 Budget here.