Recently some questions have been asked by community members about Inland Rail.
I would like to present some of the facts and make some comments in reply.
Facts:
Inland Rail publicly released its “proposed route” near Narrabri in November 2017.
An ‘alternative route’ was publicly suggested with a full map of the two routes appearing in The Courier in March 2018.
Since that time there has been considerable agitation from locals at consultation meetings and via the media, emails, letters etc to have the route changed.
The suggestion that the campaign to change the route has come too late is totally wrong.
The first public effort was within four months of the proposed route being made public.
Prior to March 2018, many locals had expressed concerns about the location of IR being so close to Narrabri.
These were not public concerns in The Courier or via emails but they were concerns strongly expressed in meetings with IR.
To suggest that the current campaign to have the line shifted should have been done years ago is incorrect.
The campaign did start many years ago.
At its monthly meeting on January 27, 2021, Narrabri Shire Council was presented with a thorough report prepared by council staff on the proposed Inland Rail route.
This report was critical of the proposed route and listed some of the advantages of the alternative route.
Councillors passed a resolution to make a submission on the Environmental Impact Statement prepared by Inland Rail.
The submission was to be generally as per the report.
The resolution included this point.
The resolution was carried 7-0.
It was unanimous.
No councillor voted against the resolution.
Since that meeting, there has been no council meeting to change that resolution.
The IR project is still being assessed by the Department of Planning, Infrastructure and Environment.
There were more than 100 submissions made on the EIS.
IR has not, as yet, replied to those submissions.
Approval from the state government for the project has not yet been received.
Even though the project has not been through the planning process and received approval, IR has chosen to begin purchasing land along the proposed route.
It is not the fault of proponents of the alternative route that IR has done this.
If the route is changed then the land that has been purchased can be resold, either to the previous owners or to another purchaser.
A comparison of the number of dwellings affected by the two routes is enlightening.
About 18 are within one kilometre of the alternative route and 108 are within one kilometre of the proposed route.
About 12 are within 500 metres of the alternative route and about 33 are within 500 metres of the proposed route.
So, in summary, the proponents of the alternative route are not late to the table.
They have been waging this campaign for many years.
The proponents of the alternative route are very convinced that if the alternative route was adopted there would be enormous advantages not just for Narrabri for the next 100 years but also for Inland Rail.
Ross Gleeson, Narrabri
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