NSW Farmers has called on the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) to stop one-on-one consultation with farmers in relation to Inland Rail.
NSW Farmers yesterday urged its members not to enter into any Inland Rail land access deals with the ARTC.
The ARTC is currently seeking one-on-one negotiations with farmers along the route between Narromine and Narrabri. NSW Farmers wants the ARTC to come clean about the data it used to decide on the final corridor and has scheduled two public meetings for next Wednesday, one at Coonamble RSL at noon, the other at Narromine RSL at 5pm.
NSW Farmers president Derek Schoen said his organisation was not comfortable with the “standard-issue ARTC land access agreement” and wanted to work with ARTC to develop an agreement that would benefit all parties. “We believe the ARTC should cease further one-on-one consultation . . . until such time as a mutually agreeable land access agreement has been reached between NSW Farmers and the ARTC,” he said.
Mr Schoen said NSW Farmers supported Inland Rail, but was concerned about the ARTC’s approach, highlighting “transparency and quality” of consultation so far. “We believe, until information about route selection is made publicly available, the ARTC should cease contacting farmers and asking them to sign land access agreements,” he said.
Barbara Deans, “Kamira”, on the Coonamble flats about 10 kilometres from the base of the Warrumbungles, and an even 60km from Coonamble, Coonabarabran and Baradine, said her and husband Geoff’s property would be divided by the Inland Rail route.
She said ARTC had not yet been on their property, but UTS Geophysics had flown over the area about a year ago gathering soil types, noting landforms and physical features of the area.
“Everybody is really stressed here, our lives have changed and we don’t know what the future will hold,” she said. There had been no assurances there would be an on-property crossing enabling them to get from one 200-hectare section to the other 300ha section cut by the rail line, she said.
Mrs Deans said there was a spine of red soil running through their place and that was likely where the line would be placed on the corridor through “Kamira”.
The ARTC said it valued the strong advocacy of NSW Farmers on Inland Rail and “we appreciate their focus is on delivering the best project. ARTC wants to continue our long relationship and build on our recent constructive discussions including a meeting agreed to last week between ARTC chief executive John Fullerton and NSW Farmers president Derek Schoen.”
ARTC said it currently has about 600 land access agreements in place along the entire Inland Rail alignment, and 97 per cent of landowners so far have been very happy to sign the agreements, “which provide landowners with appropriate protections”.
“These agreements, between ARTC and landowners, provide us with access to carry out studies such as assessing trees and native wildlife and noise monitoring,” a spokesman said.
“The studies are generally very low impact for landowners, unlike those undertaken by resource companies.
“We are always clear with landowners that they have no obligation to sign an agreement and they can also terminate at any time if they change their mind for any reason,” the spokesman said.
