Grandfather of Inland Rail won’t let project die

He is known as the ‘grandfather’ of Inland Rail.

But after fighting for a freight spine in the heart of Australia for almost 30 years, Everald Compton refuses to let his dream die in the outback.

A federal decision to scrap a rail link from Parkes to Brisbane in NSW has left regional development plans in tatters, a veteran fundraiser says, but insists the project can be saved with private help.

“The Inland Rail concept will not die,” Mr Compton told AAP.

“I’m not in the business of fighting governments, I’m in the business of building railroads.”

Originally billed as a nation-building link between Melbourne and Brisbane, the flagship freight route from Beveridge to Kagaru will now stop beyond Parkes, about halfway between the two capitals.

Independent analysis found the project’s cost escalation to more than $45 billion, up from $16.4 billion in 2020, prompting Transport Secretary Catherine King to “reframe the future of the Inland Rail” and focus on a safer, more efficient network.

The government will retain the land corridor north of Parkes but has no immediate plans to build the second half of the line.

Farmers and regional leaders have branded the unfinished project a “train to nowhere”, warning that the communities at risk will bear the cost for decades.

Queensland Farmers Federation chief executive Jo Sheppard says moving away from the entire route is a missed opportunity to increase productivity, reduce emissions and transform the way freight is transported across the country.

“Leaving this project unfinished will have a long-term impact on our country and especially our regions,” he says.

Andrew Smith, mayor of Queensland’s Western Downs, describes the outage as a hugely disappointing blow that will see already worn-out country roads carrying heavy trucks for years to come.

According to Mr Compton, the latest decision is a new turning point in the three-decade-long struggle over what Inland Rail should be and who it should serve.

He first floated the idea of ​​a backcountry freight route to Canberra in March 1996, establishing a privately funded line across the length of the continent.

“I’ve been involved in this concept from Melbourne to Darwin, halfway through NSW and Queensland,” he says.

“I went to see (then prime minister) John Howard to get his blessing that I start putting together a consortium to do this, which he did.”

However, the plan that emerged years later was very different.

Rather than a Melbourne-Darwin corridor running through Gladstone, Emerald and Mount Isa, the Commonwealth supported a Melbourne-Brisbane line running from Beveridge on the edge of Melbourne to Kagaru south of Brisbane.

Mr. Compton opposed this change and eventually stepped aside.

“They got rid of me because I opposed the Melbourne to Brisbane part,” he says.

He objected to the line not starting from the Port of Melbourne or running all the way to Brisbane, and questioned why it would gouge farmland bypassing existing transport corridors.

“Rural industries between Melbourne and Brisbane couldn’t export anything via rail because it didn’t come into a port,” he says.

“I also objected to them taking land from people, seizing people’s lands without thinking about their livelihood.”

The cost explosion that ultimately stalled the project came as no surprise to the man who helped verify the original estimates.

He says the initial estimate for transportation from Melbourne to Brisbane is around $9 billion.

“You won’t believe it, but according to the current estimate, the cost will be $42 billion,” he says.

“This all comes down to money being wasted on inept contracts and legal battles with farmers whose livelihoods have been destroyed.

“They wasted an awful lot of money. The federal government should have done something to stop the disaster, but they shouldn’t have said it was over.”

Rather than rage over the disruption, Mr Compton presented a privately-owned alternative to complete the northern spine.

When the government signaled it would stop funding Inland Rail at Parkes, it called for permission to build the missing link.

“I told them I wanted to negotiate for my private company to build the railway to Parkes and on to Queensland,” he says.

He has already assembled a board of directors and backers including bankers, miners and shipping companies, with the aim of signing off on a new project through “financial closure” over nearly two years.

He says this phase will include environmental studies, land rights studies and discussions with capital partners.

“We think we can do this with private capital,” Mr. Compton says.

The federal government has agreed to talk about the issue but is not committed.

Meanwhile, businesses investing along the promised corridor are being left adrift, he says.

“There are a lot of people along the way who are devastated, there are people who were planning to open industries, and now all the capital has been lost,” he says.

“People need some hope”

Mr Compton says Inland Rail has never been about moving containers from trucks to trains.

He sees this as a chance to redraw the population map.

“Thirty years ago, we said that this chain of development should be away from the capitals.

“80 per cent of Australia’s population lives in capital cities and the rest of the continent is sparsely populated.”

His vision is to create a series of growth corridors, complete with new industries and jobs, connecting Gladstone, the Darling Downs and inland NSW to Melbourne.

In this model, Inland Rail supports not only freight movements but also housing affordability and quality of life.

“You pay a million dollars for a crappy house in the city, and then you pay rising interest rates,” Mr. Compton says.

“You could go to a regional town, buy yourself a nice piece of land, and build the exact same house for $500,000.

“You don’t have huge debt and you get a job in a new industry; it’s a much healthier life than wandering around a crowded city and catching COVID and the flu.”

Mr Compton says the real loser is regional development planned along the original route, which will never happen.

He knows that at his age, he may not be able to see the full line, but he is determined to lock down a path that others can follow.

“I only have a few years left, but… I’m going to make this thing unstoppable.”

In his view, Inland Rail is either a half-built train going nowhere, or the backbone of a different kind of Australia.

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