Cattle trains to load at Julia Creek following lease with Aurizon

McKinlay Mayor Philip Curr said that after negotiations, the council and Aurizon had agreed to a five-year agreement, in which the council would lease the section of the yards owned by Aurizon, excluding the cattle dip.

"Aurizon want to keep the yards and that's their prerogative, so this is the best compromise," he said. "A baseline environmental report has to happen now, but we should be loading out of the yards when the trains start running."

Aurizon padlocked its holding yards at Julia Creek, Hughenden and Stuart following the awarding of the livestock haulage contract on the northern line to Watco East West in January 2022, therefore preventing their use by the new carrier.

It resulted in cattle rail freight on the line grinding to a halt, but Cr Curr said the smaller number of finished bullocks being sent east last year meant that there hadn't been as big an impact as first feared.

"Mostly it's been young cattle going south to finish - it's not like the old days when 700 or 800 head were walked in to load at Gilliat," he said. "People are putting more crops in now, and that will finish cattle up here, with grain and cotton seed, so going forward, I think the yards will get more use."

The terms of the lease are confidential.

Cloncurry was the only siding Watco could load from last year, after the council there ascertained its ownership of the trucking yards, and mayor Greg Campbell said it had been a very disrupted year.

"We had a little bit of uncertainty until we could prove ownership but we hope it will be more consistent this year," he said. "It would be good if people could lock in trains."

He said their trucking yards had been leased to Aurizon but were back in council's hands, and were now requiring maintenance.

"We are working with the Department of Transport to give them a bit of an upgrade," he said, adding that he would like to see an overall investment plan for the line, to plan for quicker train turnarounds.

"Trains are down to 40 kilometres an hour in places," he said.

Cr Campbell said news of the major rail siding extension at Maxwelton, which will increase capacity of the siding 50 kilometres west of Richmond to almost five times its current level, was not of concern to Cloncurry.

"If cattle were to go another 300 kilometres, to Maxwelton, they may as well go all the way to Townsville (by road)," he said. "They're different catchments."

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