Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

The Inland Rail has bipartisan support at the federal level but the NSW government would rather Auslink money be spent in Sydney instead of a visionary NATIONAL PROJECT.  The latest AUSLINK report on SYDNEY (April 2007) provides a very useful analysis of current transport issues in Sydney.  Note data quoted from  Halcrow (www.halcrow.com)  

Some background on the Inland Rail:  It was in 1887 that a railway from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria was first planned, roughly following the Burke and Wills route. It foundered through a lack of co-operation amongst the three States through which it was to pass. This, combined with the economic recession of 1893, was sufficient to put it on the back burner for fifty years.

In 1942, General Douglas Macarthur proposed to build a rail link from Cloncurry to Darwin for the defence of Australia. Even though he proposed to build it free of charge to Australia using American Steel and Labour, it was rejected by the Australian Government.

A Victorian, Sir Harold Clapp, took it up again in 1949. He actually persuaded the Chifley Government to agree to build a defence railway from Melbourne to Darwin via Bourke, Longreach and Cloncurry and the Cabinet passed a minute authorising its detailed planning.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 1924 and is filed under Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.