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Register for news updatesTasmania’s North East Rail Trail Extension to Lilydale Re-funded
The extension to the North East Rail Trail is set to go ahead after a key funding component – $1.47 million in federal government support – was re-confirmed.
This is the money needed to build the North East Recreation Trail from Lilydale to Scottsdale, a distance of 30km, in Tasmania’s North East. Dorset Council (based in Scottsdale) is now expected to lodge a development application to build the project. This will hopefully happen within weeks.
This news is especially pleasing given that the original funding agreement with the Dorset Council had lapsed due to the neccessary additional time needed to consult with the community.
In an excerpt from an article in the North Eastern Advertiser (Wed. 2 September 2020) Mayor Greg Howard said “the development applications are very close to being ready to go… once they have been approved, we will call for tenders.”
He also noted “it’s pleasing to note that we have already had interest from a number of companies with the capabilities to dismantle the rail line and reconstruct the cycle trail. The 41 km project is hoped to be underway this summer.”
The council will build the trail along the public land corridor which was formerly the North East railway. The new trail will connect with the existing rail trail that extends 28km north-east from Scottsdale to Billycock Hill, near the small town of Legerwood.
The North East public land rail corridor extends from near Rocherlea, a northern suburb of Launceston, to Scottsdale, a distance of 60km, Regular commercial passenger trains stopped running in the 1970s. The last freight train ran in 2004. The corridor extends about 110km from Launceston’s outskirts to Herrick, a small town near the top of Tasmania. An unfunded heritage rail project has been suggested for a section between Launceston and Lilydale.
You can read an article here from the Tasmanian Times.
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