AN announcement is expected in about two months on the Yamba Port and Rail Proposal, Cr David Jones informed Inverell Shire Council at their meeting on Wednesday, when he asked council to express its support for the project.
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Cr Jones recognised the traditional owners by inviting them to share in the profits and said while some ‘i’s and t’s’ are still being dotted and crossed, he expected the regeneration and expansion of the port of Yamba and the building of a rail link across to the North Coast Rail line would be complete by 2018.
He said a link to the Inland Rail, from Grafton to Moree (the Pacific West Rail & Infrastucture Corridor) will be completed by Yamba Port and Rail by 2023.
The New England line will be reconstructed with double track from Glen Innes to Werris Creek through Armidale and Tamworth and then west to Merrygoen Junction. From the junction one part of the line will continue on to link up to the Inland Rail at Narromine, the other will go south through Gulgong, Mudgee and then to Lithgow.
Part of the development includes the re-opening of the Casino to Murwillumbah rail line, with a link to the Ballina airport.
“Port Yamba already exists eight kilometres up from the mouth of the Clarence River on Goodwood Island and there is a huge length of frontage into the river that can be converted to a wharf,” Cr Jones said.
“It’s an island under sugar cane. It will be Australia’s totally interconnected eastern seaport.”
The first stage of the development will be to build a connecting rail link from Port Yamba to the Pacific Railway, 35 kilometres north of Grafton near Banyabba, and then inland through Glen Inness and Inverell.
“By 2030 Yamba Port and Rail infrastructure will provide capacity for upward of 80 million containers per annum,” Cr Jones said.
The rail link is expected to take-up to 70 per cent of truck freight off the roads and create about 140,000 jobs on the North Coast alone.
