Railtrails Australia has been monitoring the possibility of a rail trail along at least part of the historic Brisbane River Valley railway. In 1998 we reported the destruction of several low level heavy timber bridges on the northern section and last year discovered the Shire of Esk had an intense interest in opening the 7 km section between Fernvale to Lowood, 39km south of Esk and near the vast Wivenhoe Reservoir.
RA President Michael Oxer has made several exploratory visits along the line and provided information to Council representatives to assist their efforts. This August he met with Councillor June Bray and CEO Warren Oxnam to discuss developments. Following that meeting he made representations to the offices of two Queensland Government Ministers and secured a meeting with Mr Ross MacLeod, Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Minister for Environment.
Michael reports that in establishing meetings with government officials he found a copy of the RA Railtrails of Victoria guidebook served as a quick and graphical way of introducing the matters he wanted to discuss and helped gain interest and support.
The Esk Shire needs assistance with ‘on the ground’ coordination of a number of elements involved in the project. A number of government authorities need to be actively involved and focussing that effort is now critical. Local support is reported to be growing and several difficulties along the Fernvale to Lowood section involving old timber trestle bridges have been resolved with neighbouring landowners. A growing number of local folk are using parts of the line for walking but until rails and sleepers are lifted and the track surface prepared bicycle riding is not an option.
We are hoping that through the good offices and support of the Minister for Environment, Honorable Dean Wells, this potentially fine rail trail will soon become a reality, bring local tourism benefits and provide a new use for a very old route between two fascinating Queensland country towns alongside the Brisbane River.
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Register for news updatesThe community have the opportunity to provide direct feedback to assist the Mt Alexander Shire Council in partnership wi...
The City of Greater Bendigo will shortly commence a project to construct and install public toilets, bike hoops, new par...
A large crowd turned out today (Friday 26 May) on a beautiful morning at Trawool Estate for the official launch of the A...
On Wednesday 10 May 2023 a public-information session was held for community members to view and discuss the plans for r...
The duplication of Main South Road from Seaford to Sellicks Beach has commenced and will include a 16km off-road shared ...
The Bunny Rail Trail is a new trail under development between Ballarat and Buninyong in Western Victoria. Walkers, runne...
The good news just keeps rolling in for the Tweed Section of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail with the Tweed Council NRRT ...
On 17 May 2023, Cessnock City Council unanimously approved the Review of Environmental Factors (REF) and associated repo...
The third South Burnett Express Rail Trail Relay, run from Kingaroy to Wondai (on the Kilkivan – Kingaroy Rail Tra...
The catchily-named Eastern Dandenong Ranges Trail will have its 800m extension from Edenmont Rd to Belgrave-Gembrook Rd ...
The Coast to Vines Rail Trail in South Australia now has a new side trail called the Flat to Vale Trail and while it is ...
The Australian and South Australian governments have jointly (50:50) funded $400m for the removal of level crossings whe...
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The Yarra Valley Trail (YVT) stage 1a opened a few years ago and is now heavily used and embraced by the community. Not ...
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