Riverina food industry to gain two rail hubs

Two regional rail hubs and business parks in NSW’s Riverina district will be master planned and developed by Vaughan Constructions for joint venture partners Colin Rees Group and Amberly Management.

Ettamogah Rail Hub, 15 km north of Albury on the Hume Hwy, and Widgelli Rail Hub and Business Park, 10 km south-east of Griffith, will be strategically located to support over 500 km of rail branch lines throughout the Riverina.

Ettamogah Rail Hub, owned and operated by Colin Rees Group since 2009, will yield over 45,000 m² of warehouse space for lease. Cameron Jackson, chief operating officer for the Colin Rees Group, said, “We’ve concentrated on the rail operations but the time is right now, with the right partners, to offer more to our customers. The pre-lease interest has been encouraging with multiple enquiries on the hub already showing us that the demand is there in regional areas.”

Widgelli Rail Hub and Business Park is situated on a 68 ha site owned by the Morshead family, a fourth-generation Griffith family with broad agricultural interests. Through their Amberley Group, the Morsheads have joined forces with the Colin Rees Group to develop the site, the first 30 ha stage of which will include a new rail hub, rail sidings and over 100,000 m² of warehouse space, hardstands and road networks.

An Australian Government Department of Agriculture report, released in April 2015, confirmed that in addition to grapes and tomatoes, the Riverina accounts for 96% of the total value of NSW’s carrots, 74% of the state’s oranges, 59% of the state’s apples and nearly half of the state’s rice production. “There’s a huge variety of potential for users of the hubs, so Vaughan’s design solution is flexible to accommodate any business,” Jackson said.

“We know that production costs have been squeezed to breaking point, so the focus of many producers, processors, retailers and exporters is the supply chain. We saw a definite gap in the market. So we’ve teamed up with the Morsheads and Vaughan and we’re able to offer ‘short line’ rail services in addition to conventional warehouse, cold storage and distribution facilities to our customers. Our Regional Connect network can get your box from anywhere in the Riverina to any eastern seaboard port and even Perth via the Junee or Cootamundra connections,” said Jackson.

Rail transport in the US has been revived thanks to short line rail, which offers the advantages of economies of scale to individual customers, by pooling assets and infrastructure in hubs.

“The concept of bringing rail to the customer, similar to the US, is a winner. Our development partners are investing in quality assets with a long-term view of the success and viability of rail,” said Andrew Noble, director and general manager of Vaughan Constructions. “It’s also likely to reinvigorate or reopen disused rail links.”

The total construction value of the two projects is $200m. Ettamogah is expected to be fully developed within 18 months and the first of two major stages at Widgelli over the next 2 years.