Regional Queensland communities have joined Queensland’s Bowen Rail Company (BRC) to celebrate its new rail freight performance record and the 180 local jobs created in the process.
Local business and community leaders gathered at the Grand View Hotel in Bowen recently to mark the freight first of 10 million tonnes of high-quality Queensland coal BRC transported, from its customer Bravus Mining and Resources’ Carmichael mine to the North Queensland Export Terminal.
BRC General Manager Brendan Lane told the crowd the achievement was testament to the dedication and hard work of all who had supported the business since it set up shop in Bowen in 2020.
“In just three years we’ve gone from a team of 10 people working on William Street to a thriving group of about 180 employees working across our rail operations, network control, health and safety, maintenance, environment, and professional functions,” he said.
Lane said BRC had focused on creating a culture that has a positive local impact and reinforces the business’ ASPIRE values of accountability, safety, people, integrity, respect, and excellence.
“Every single person in our organisation – from the seasoned hands who relocated from across the country to join our business right through to the locals we have brought into the rail industry through our train driver traineeship program – has helped shape or drive our ASPIRE values,” he said.
“That’s also seen our people and their families become a part of this town. Some are long-standing locals and others have moved here from as far away as Western Australia and NSW.
“All of them are contributing to the sense of community that makes the Whitsundays such a wonderful place to live and work in.
“We’re deeply grateful for the incredible support we’ve received as we’ve grown from a startup to a thriving rail operator.
“While this celebration is about one record, the good news for Bowen is this is only the latest in many to come for our business.”
BRC is a next-generation rail business and Australia’s first greenfield railway in more than a decade.
It was the first rail services operator in Queensland to be accredited under the Office of National Rail Safety Regulator regime for the provision of bulk coal services.
Today the business runs six trains a day back and forth between the North Queensland Export Terminal at the Port of Abbot Point, north of Bowen, and Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin.
