Hi all,
I did hear talk about introducing standard gauge mineral lines in the Geraldton area. I did think initially, that seemed silly - imposing another gauge break and removing potential for network co-ordination - but consider this - if there was scope to get back as far as Meekatharra, with the support of the Pilbara miners, one could continue the line on to Newman, build a connection to Tom Price and allow both Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton to access the new Geraldton Port as a means of production / cyclone proofing their own ports at Port Hedland and Dampier? Strategically sensible? Then continuing on the same tack, build in the opposite direction from Meekatharra south east to Leonora, connecting the mineral lines to the national network. Why? Why not? With Leonora - Kalgoorlie - Esperance brought up to Pilbara standards, you would then have W.A.'s key mineral ports Port Hedland / Dampier / Geraldton / Esperance interconnected!
Lets go further! The Midland line to Geraldton is well used, however the WAGR line Northam / Kalannie / Maya / Morowa / Mullewa is broken in the middle and almost redundant. If standard gauge appeared in Geraldton, would it not be sensible to convert Mullewa to Northam to standard gauge, which would connect Geraldton to the standard gauge network? Further, with standard gauge linking Kalgoorlie - Leonora - Meekatharra - Mullewa - Northam, Perth would have a second standard gauge route from Kalgoorlie - a strategic asset to protect against derailment / storm damage to the Northam - Kalgoorlie via Merridin route.
Even further! I have heard mutterings from the Pilbara miners about considering a new transcontinental route from the Pilbara to Central Queensland. Great idea! I cant see the proposed line cutting across the Great Sandy, Gibson and Tanami Deserts, so one would logically expect the line to head north east to the Kimberley and pick up the original ambitious Australian Inland Rail Expressway plan of Kunnanurra - Katherine - Tennant Creek - Mt Isa - Winton - Longreach - Emerald - Gladstone. With the increasing productivity of the Kimberley, it is crying out for connection to the national rail network. Under the original A.I.R.E. plan, the Kimberley was virtually sceeded to the Northern Territory. In linking W.A. standard gauge networks, Perth can retain a grip on it's remotest region. Added to the current Inland Rail Spine proposals and to what I detailed previously above, Western Australia would then be strategically in a good position with two trans-continentals (Three from Kal to Northam) protecting it from derailment / storm or other calamity, which with rails increasing domination of the trans continental traffic flow, is making W.A. increasingly vulnerable with one, easily disrupted trans-continental.
Cheers,
