ADELAIDE TO DARWIN RAILWAY

An article by Shri G.V.Raghaviah AAO(Retired) S.E.Railway, now settled in Australia

Nearly a century and half-ago J. Robertson a businessman from Melbourne proposed a rail link between Adelaide to Darwin. Almost as soon as the Overland Telephone line across the heart of the Continent was completed in 1872 and Darwin took shape as the point where international cables touched Australian soil, arguments in favor of a rail link began.

Adelaide is the Capital City of Southern Australia and Darwin is the capital city of Northern Territory in Australia.

South Australia needs a link towards North up to Darwin for viable or increased annual exports involving agricultural products, mining, quaculture, meat, citrus horticultural, manufacturing, dairy, products to South Asian and Asian Countries, resulting in more trade, more jobs and larger economic base to South Australia and tourism as well.

The Northern Territory contained enormous region of the best grazing land, with a splendid climate and excellent Rainfall, millions of acres which are adaptable to settlement, besides gold, a repository of minerals, resources, iron ore and water a tourist wonderland. North – a vision of prosperity, of space, of limitless resources. In 1909 Alfred Searcy, the sub-collector of Customs of Port Darwin committed for a transcontinental rail to join Darwin with South.

The hope was that transport network would span the length and breadth of Australia open up new pastoral country and forge profitable trading links with Asia. All that need was a communications link up to Darwin Port to make the idea real

South Australia originally administered Northern Territory from Adelaide. On January 1911 the Northern Territory was transferred from South Australia to the Commonwealth. As a part of the transfer Agreement, with enabling legislation the Commonwealth undertook to “ to construct or to cause to be constructed a railway line from Port Darwin south wards to a point on the northern boundary of South Australia proper

The Pacific war, and Japanese bombing of Darwin, underscored the weakness of the North requiring a well-supported cordon At the height of the war time 120000 allied troops were stationed in tropical Australia. A link towards South to serve the critical line for defense purposes was also one of the unspoken motives for the rail link

In 1983 an electoral commitment was given to build the line by 1988. Then attention was focussed entirely on the cost and benefits that could be attributed to the 1420km. of track between Alice Springs and Darwin.

Alice Springs is in Northern Territory already connected by Rail from Adelaide laid between 1828 -1929. The proposed link will end the need to transfer freight in road trucks in Alice Springs. The commitment could not be honored as it was felt that the railway could not pay for itself requiring; endless subsidies from the Federal government to survive.

. In1986The Northern Territory Railway Executive Group was created and was given the task of developing a realistic cost-benefit analysis of the project. In one of its reports it was concluded from their base line projections that ”the Railway will be totally unattractive as a strictly commercial venture over the period covering construction and the first 12 years of operation since the cash flow will be negative. The railway will turn substantially positive cash-positive over the ensuing eight years but the internal rate of return (approximately 2 per cent per annum) will be unattractive to potential investors. This observation given hope if investors are interested for lower rate of return than that was prevailing, if cashflow could be increased by lifting the projected freight volumes along the line and if the cash flow available could be spread more thickly over a reduced commercial equity participation. The report felt that the project needed sufficient time to succeed. . The Wran Report, commissioned by the federal government, states an Alice Spring –Darwin link was matter of’ not ‘if’ but ‘when’ the line can sensibly built.

Over several International Road shows led by a succession of Chief Ministers of Northern Territory, Treasurer, and Head of the Northern Territory Treasury between (1981-83,)(1986-1996) and Administrator of the Northern Territory 1997-2000) the Northern Territory sought interest among major railway builders and operators in Britain, the US, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Every major Bank, Pension Fund, Insurance Company and funds Managers in those countries were appraised in a search for long –term capital prepared to share the commercial risk at a rate of return the project could afford

But these promising starts did not materialize because of limited commonwealth support. It eventually became clear that the presence of Commonwealth (Federal) Dollars would greatly improve the chances of significant private sector participation. On October 28^th 1999 after two years of negotiations, Prime Minister announced an agreement between the Commonwealth, South Austrian Government and Northern Territory Government for construction of this line. The concept of this project was said to have been steadily transformed from a local railway line to an integrated transport service. The Northern Territory government commenced the construction of a totally new Port of Darwin pending construction of Railway line at the northern end. By having an identical Australian standard gauge railway network may increase the range of transport options to Importers and Exporters. The essential element of”time” for commercial viability was brought forward by reasonable projections of additional traffic that may be expected. The Federal government, Northern Territory Government and the South Australian government collectively put up $560 million to subsidize the construction of the Railway. The Northern Territory government in addition invested $100million in developing the Port of Darwin. The SA government committed a further $150 million to the project. The balance construction cost was found from private sector equity and debt both Australia and International.

20^th April 2001 was the day the Banks and Investors reached financial closure and the key documents were signed.. It was recognized that extensive involvement of and collaboration with the Aboriginal Communities of Northern Territory was essential for successful commencement and completion of the project. Therefore, when Land Use Agreement was signed in April 2001, it was made clear that the traditional owners have given their consent for the railway to be built on their land and the Consortium and its Contractors committed themselves to provide 50 job placements and training for indigenous workers over the life of the project in the National Land Council area.

Thirty Tenders from 60 national and international companies expressed interest in building, owning, and operating the proposed line. TheChief Executive M/s Kellogg Brown & Root Pty Ltd, was the driving force behind the creation of Asia Pacific Transport, the private sector consortium that won the contract to finance, build, maintain and operate the rail link for fifty years.

Other consortium members are ;

1 .John Holland, Rail Infrastructure Expert, largest construction contractors since 1949and share Holder in the Operating Companies

2. Barclay Mowlem, Macmahon and Australian Rail Road Group

Adrail was formed to design and build the Railway. Freight Link was established to operate the rail freight services between Adelaide and Darwin.

Barclay Mowlem was responsible for 649km of tracklaying, five major bridge refurbishment of River Bridge, and flood plan bridges.

John Holland was involved in the overall design and construction of the railway and provided the expertise for the building of 85 bridges, precutting of bridge structures, and management of Trackworks South, which built the remaining 771-Km of line.

Austrac, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barclay Mowlem was to supply two million concrete sleepers

The Track laying began in April 2002 with a contracted completion date of April 2004.

The 1420-KM stretch to Darwin from Alice Springs of single-track standard gauge project was completed in October 2003 at a cost AU$1.3 billion.

It was completed in time without any cost over run

The first south-north transcontinental freight train to Darwin departed Adelaide to cover a distance of 2979 km in three days from to Darwin on 15/1/2004.The 1.3km long train was headed by two new 2862kW locus built by EDI Rail in Port Augusta.(in Northern Territory) It was intended to one freight train in each direction daily. Each one way trip will take about 43 hours.

Inaugural Transcontinental Passenger train also departed Adelaide on 1/2/2004 and arrived at Darwin on3/2/2004. The journey involved 47 hours. The train comprised two locomotives pulling 43 carriages with total mass of 2000t. The Passenger Train is named as Ghan Passenger. This passenger train derived its name from the first camels and their handlers who were imported from Afghanistan 150 years ago They were nicknamed as Ghan as they helped settle the country’s harsh interior. The Inaugural passenger train’s Ist class fare was priced at $12,000/- from Adelaide to Darwin. Nearly a century and a half after it was proposed, it became a reality. The salient features of the Project are:

· On most days well in excess of scheduled target 2.4 Km of track was constructed.

· The design of the new track allows freight trains to travel a t a maximum speed of 115 km/h.

· Each train will be able to handle 250 double-stacked containers.

· Each freight train will be1600 m long and be powered by 4000hp locomotives.

· 15 million cu meters of earthwork was handled,

· 1500 culverts and 93 bridges including three major structures wee construct

· KBR’s Engineers made modular bridge designs which enabled to build 93 bridges at an average one bridge a week..

· Two million concrete sleepers were laid..

· 8 million rail track clamps were applied.

· 146000 tonnes o f rail was used.

· 100324 welds were carried

· Much of the work had to be carried out by night, under flashlights, because of burning summer heat of the Central Australian deserts,

· 25000 orders for goods and services, were placed

· With great precision millions of tonnes of earth, sleepers and rails were moved.

· Giant state-of- the- art factories manufacturing concrete sleepers were built and hauled down the growing line to the workfront and followed the survey plumb-line, 9m every minute.

· Adrail provided equipment fleet and at the height of construction , there were 43 graders,36 Bulldozers, 34 excavators and 18 mobile cranes among the machines on the line.

· Men stood beside the tracklayers and checked each of one of the 110000 flash-butt weld – creating, a single fused strip of steel that stretches from Alice Spring to Darwin.

· By the end of 2002 more than 150 job placements for aboriginal workers could be secured with the contractors and more than 200 Aboriginal participated in the Railway Training program

· The Track is an artery across the continent crossing by 1600 meter freight trains to traverse the track that weighs 2.8 million tonnes – equivalent to 53 Sydney Harbour bridges

· Australian Rail Group was contracted to provide train services for the construction of the railway,operate freight trains between Adelaide and Darwin on behalf of Freight l ink, crews, railway infrastructural services ( which include train control and safe working management) rolling stock , supply of four locomotives and initially up to 100 container wagons Five freight trains per week of up to 1.8 km in length are to be run initially

· The link has created an Austral Asia Trade Route to finally link Australia’s southern cities, through Darwin to Asian trading partners of Australia.. It is a realization that the potential of Australia’s last frontier is finally being realized beginning a new chapter in the economic development of Northern Territory.

· South Australia has set itself a target to nearly treble the State’s annual export income over the coming decade from $9 billion to $25 billion.

· The media has an piece of advice to the Federal Government that it must do all it can do to contain competition by road , mainly lesser direct rate of freight by sea than by rail , by promoting Darwin to Asian markets and better integrating land transport through the long- awaited Aust-link plan.

· . The Asia Pacific Transport, the operators plans initially to move 3,50,000 tonnes of cargo per annum, but over time want to build up to 8,00,000 tonnes.

The Alice Spring – to - Darwin railway is therefore a newest working line in Australia’s transport infrastructure. Its future is in now in the operational and marketing skills of its owners and managers.

( Courtesy: Various Articles appeared in The Australian Dated :15/1/2004 d/16/12004 The Weekend Australian d/17-18/2004 )