Community calls for abandoned Murray Basin Rail Project to be finished

The Murray Basin Rail Project (MBRP) was devised to upgrade and standardise Victoria’s rail network, revitalising rail freight in the state.

The broad-gauge tracks of the Mildura, Manangatang and Sea Lake lines were all earmarked to be converted to standard gauge, making them interoperable with neighbouring states and boosting productivity.

Works began in 2015 and were meant to be completed by 2018. However, in 2019, the half-completed project was abandoned before the Sea Lake and Manangatang lines could be standardised. Seven years later, rail operators using those two lines have been left with no choice but to run two sets of rolling stock across two different gauges.

Meanwhile, trains on the Mildura Line – which did get standardised – are forced to detour an extra 130 kilometres each way to access Geelong and the Port of Melbourne, because gauge conversion was not completed between Maryborough, Ballarat and North Geelong.

It’s a source of frustration across the whole network, and for a community group known as Ouyen Inc, made up of residents of the small town of Ouyen in the Mildura region – many of them farmers.

Why now is the time to act

Ouyen Inc is calling on the Victorian and federal governments to urgently complete the MBRP and restore a direct rail link from northwest Victoria to Geelong and the Port of Melbourne.

With the state election scheduled for November 2026, the organisation says now is the time to put the issue squarely on the agenda.

“After more than seven years of inaction since works stalled in 2019, this nation-building project should be on every candidate’s radar,” said Dean Munro, a member of the Ouyen Inc committee.

“It is part of the National Freight Network and should be treated as such.”

Munro said that freight trains on the Mildura Line being made to detour 130 kilometres each way via Ararat and Maroona has a significant impact on Mildura – which is Australia’s highest agricultural earning region, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

“The Mildura Rural City Council region is forecast to generate over 12.8 million tonnes of intermodal freight to 2035,” Munro highlighted. “It is more than 500 kilometres from the port, where rail should have a natural advantage.

“Despite this, Mildura and the Sunraysia area are expected to continue sending more than 80 per cent of containerised freight of fruit, wine, grain, hay and almonds from the region by road (source: GHD Advisory), needing six billion net tonne kilometres of truck movements to Melbourne and Adelaide over the next decade.

“That number could be the same again for the regions that export bulk grain. According to anecdotal evidence from the region’s grain growers, train transport is at its all-time lowest share since the transition to bulk handling in the 1940s to 1950s.”

Ouyen Inc’s agribusiness and logistics consultant, chartered accountant Michael O’Callaghan, said the MBRP being unfinished is costing the Mildura Council area and Sunraysia region hundreds of thousands of dollars each week.

“The cost is being felt directly at the farm gate, where returns are already under increasing strain from fuel and fertiliser price hikes,” he added.

The Sunraysia Mallee Port Link

The current inefficiencies in Victoria’s freight rail network are stifling local investment in rail-related infrastructure, O’Callaghan said.

This includes the proposed Sunraysia Mallee Port Link (SMPL), a “shovel-ready” intermodal facility just south of Ouyen.

A local transport study for the terminal has been completed, and a detailed business case was prepared by GHD Advisory in 2021.

“We’ve shown that the SMPL will fill a very large gap in the intermodal rail services market across southwest New South Wales and northwest Victoria,” O’Callaghan continued.

“It will provide primary producers, exporters, and mineral sands and rare earth miners with the option to efficiently rail large volumes of freight to the port of best fit, whether that be in Victoria or South Australia.

“Overall, it will strengthen rail network resilience, productivity and patronage by enabling rail access to alternate ports (both for everyday operations and contingency scenarios), lift ‘paddock/pit to port’ productivity, unlock value adding opportunities, incentivise economic development, support international market competitiveness, and help to meet increasing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) expectations.”

However, O’Callaghan said current rail network inefficiencies are making the project unviable.

This includes not only finishing the MBRP but also reopening the Murrayville to Tailem Bend rail line for connection to Port Adelaide.

The Murrayville to Tailem Bend rail line closed in 2015 for a number of reasons, including inefficiencies caused by the line on the South Australian side being standard gauge and the line on the Victorian side being broad gauge.

However, in 2022 the Victorian side – the 109 kilometres from Ouyen to Murrayville – was converted to standard gauge, but has only seen three freight trains in total since, according to O’Callaghan. The remaining 21-kilometre section from Murrayville to the border is still broad gauge.

“If this line is reopened, it will also provide a contingent rail route for trains that travel between Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth,” said O’Callaghan. “If the route is temporarily closed between Geelong and Tailem Bend – whether that’s because of scheduled maintenance, natural disasters or other disruptions – trains could be re-routed via Ouyen.”

Government response

In response to recent media coverage of Ouyen Inc’s campaign, a Victorian Government spokesperson said longer and heavier trains provide cost savings for farmers, producers, and operators, without the need to run additional services – a claim O’Callaghan refutes.

“This position does not reflect the operational realities of freight in northwest Victoria and the broader Murray Basin rail network region,” he said. “Fresh products such as fruit and almonds, as well as the logistics of farm operations and container management, require product to be sent to port every day.

“At its core, the issue with rail is not train length, but train cycle times, service frequency and network efficiency.

“Reinstating the direct Mildura–Melbourne route via Ballarat and Gheringhap would be at least 33 per cent more productive, compared to the current 130-kilometre detour via Ararat.”

O’Callaghan said that under a direct route, it is feasible to operate at least five trains per week (at 1.2 kilometres each), equating to over six kilometres of weekly freight capacity.

“By contrast, the current Ararat alignment supports a maximum of three trains per week, even at longer lengths (1.5 kilometres), equating to materially lower total throughput of 4.5 kilometres of weekly freight capacity,” he added.

O’Callaghan said this principle applies, whether it be for intermodal freight from Mildura Rural City Council Local Government Area (LGA), Sunraysia going to Melbourne, export grain from Birchip going to Geelong, or other freight best suited to rail.

A strong case

O’Callaghan said the SMPL has “wide industry support” from the agriculture, mining and road transport sectors.

“The Australasian Railway Association (ARA) and Freight On Rail Group (FORG) listed it as a critical infrastructure gap project in their joint submission to the Victorian Freight Policy Review in 2024,” he added.

Ouyen Inc is urging communities across the rail network, and beyond, to step up the pressure and hold all political parties to account to complete the Murray Basin Rail Project.

“The economic case, particularly given Australia’s productivity and carbon reduction challenges, is far stronger today than the 2015 business case used to initiate the project,” Munro argued.

“With an election approaching, now is the time for communities from Wentworth and Euston in southwest New South Wales through to Boort, St Arnaud and Maryborough in Victoria, to demand clear commitments and hold candidates and parties to account; this project must be finished.”