Submission
Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia
Summary
This submission provides comments on policy issues associated with northern Australian
infrastructure, specifically the road and rail transport network.
The Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia is an important initiative. The RACQ
agrees with the need to develop productive new infrastructure and make better use of existing
infrastructure in northern Australia.
The RACQ is supportive of the six broad policy directions for northern Australia outlined in the
Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia. They target:
 infrastructure
 land
 water
 business, trade and investment
 education, research and innovation
 governance.
The road and rail focus of this submission falls primarily within the realm of infrastructure, but
is also critical to business, trade and investment policy. In particular, improved transport opens
up new markets and promotes greater trade links.
This submission provides comments on practical and policy issues associated with transport,
freight and mobility in northern Queensland. These include:

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
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Upgrading northern Queensland National Highways to improve flood immunity
Investing in a four-star national road network in northern Queensland
Improving mobile communications along major highways
Fixing the Bruce Highway
Development of an east west infrastructure corridor.
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Introduction
The RACQ congratulates the Australian Government on developing a comprehensive policy
platform for long term growth in northern Australia.
The RACQ is pleased to provide a submission to the Green Paper on Developing Northern
Australia. This submission addresses the importance of quality infrastructure in promoting
productivity and sustainable business growth and identifies opportunities for improved
transport and freight outcomes.
The RACQ represents 1.2 million members and seeks to maintain the viability of motor vehicle
transport on their behalf. One of RACQ’s primary goals is to secure better roads and transport
options for our members throughout Queensland.
RACQ acknowledges the breadth of the Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia and is
broadly supportive of the six policy directions identified in the Green Paper:
 infrastructure
 land
 water
 business, trade and investment
 education, research and innovation
 governance.
The Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia asks a number of questions. The content
of this submission relates primarily to the following two:
Section B:
3. What are the prospects to further expand northern Australia’s minerals and energy sectors?
Section C:
3. What are the infrastructure limitations across northern Australia?
RACQ’s submission focuses on road and rail opportunities for northern Australia, specifically,
northern Queensland. In line with the Green Paper definition, the RACQ has defined northern
Queensland as the area north of the Tropic of Capricorn. This is shown as the yellow-shaded
section of Queensland in Figure 1.
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Figure 1: Northern Queensland
Source: Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia, Commonwealth of Australia 2014
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1. Upgrading northern Queensland National Highways to improve road quality
including safety standards and greater flood immunity
The RACQ is appreciative of recent Australian Government investment in northern
Queensland road infrastructure, including:
 Outback Way upgrade ($33 million commitment)
 Bruce Highway upgrade ($6.7 billion commitment over 10 years from 2013-14, with over
$3 billion to be located in north Queensland)
 Cape York Regional Package ($208.4 million commitment) to upgrade key roads and
infrastructure
 Other north Queensland roads upgrades ($139 million commitment)1.
Nonetheless, RACQ believes more needs to be done to improve the condition of
Queensland’s northern roads, particularly with respect to improving flood immunity and safety
standards.
Improved flood immunity
As the Green Paper rightly points out, inefficient transport and inadequate roads increase the
cost of doing business and can affect the development of export supply chains2.
The quality of northern Queensland’s major road network and its ability to withstand weather
extremes is vitally important to the efficient movement of both people and goods.
The national highway network in northern Queensland consists of the Bruce Highway, the
Flinders Highway, the Barkly Highway and the Landsborough Highway.
Flooding is one of the key constraints to freight productivity, business competitiveness and
general mobility in northern Queensland. This was obvious during the 2011 flood and cyclone
events in Queensland, which affected major rail and road freight routes across much of the
State.
Transport of goods within Queensland was at a standstill, with major road and rail routes
flooded and damaged. For example, goods that would normally be trucked in to
Rockhampton, had to be barged down the coast from Mackay. Extensive damage to central
and north Queensland roads saw trucks take detours that added two to three days onto
deliveries. Obviously, most perishable goods, perished.
More durable and less flood-prone roads are vital for improved business productivity. The
magnitude of this problem has been evident for a number of years, particularly with respect to
repeated closures on Queensland's primary transport route, the Bruce Highway. Between
January 2009 and March 2011 the Bruce Highway was cut by floods and closed 530 times.
The issue of frequently flooded roads in northern Queensland is not restricted to the Bruce
Highway. Details of Queensland highway road closures, due to flooding in the north of the
State, are shown in table 1 below:
1
Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia, Commonwealth of Australia 2014 p45
2
Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia, Commonwealth of Australia 2014 p31
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Table 1: Closures on major Queensland highways due to flooding
No. of major road closures
Bruce Highway
Flinders Highway
Landsborough Highway
Dawson Highway
Capricorn Highway
Gregory Developmental Road
Gulf Developmental Road
2010
183
33
138
151
163
90
142
2009
263
127
89
12
19
90
122
Source: RACQ road condition reporting data
Over the last few years the Commonwealth has injected significant disaster relief funding into
Queensland though the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA). This
has seen a lot of emphasis on fixing the flood damage on sections of northern Queensland
roads. In some cases the roads have been rebuilt to modern engineering standards and
emerged safer and more resilient. However, greater funding is required to improve flood
immunity for northern Queensland and raise roads to a suitable standard.
The recent proposal to reduce Australian Government contributions to NDRRA will be a major
step backwards for northern Australia. The existing 75% Australian Government contribution
must be retained to support those parts of our country with a higher propensity for natural
disasters and a lower quality of fixed infrastructure.
Safer and better quality roads
The Green Paper notes that northern Queensland has a relatively extensive highway system
but there is heavy reliance on access roads that are not highway grade or are frequently
flooded3.
In order to cater for population and economic growth in northern Queensland, the northern
road network requires substantial investment to address safety and capacity issues. Across
Queensland, freight volumes are expected to increase more than 70% by 20214 and capacity
and safety of the Bruce and other major Queensland highways in the north will become
increasingly compromised.
For major northern Queensland regional centres, where high rates of population growth will
continue over the next two decades, road funding needs to address both safety and
congestion issues. Urban traffic congestion increases transport costs through increased travel
times, higher fuel costs and, for freight, increased labour costs and unreliability of delivery
times.
To the west, where the population in northern Queensland is sparser, the key road concern is
safety. Many of the roads fall below acceptable safety standards and are unforgiving of driver
3
Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia, Commonwealth of Australia 2014 p51
Queensland Government Draft Moving Freight: A plan for more efficient freight movement, Transport and Main
Roads, June 2013
4
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errors. Many of the roads are not fit for purpose and do not stand up well to resulting wear and
tear from heavy freight vehicles.
The national network links in northern Queensland should be upgraded to improve the
standard and the safety of roads and reduce the prevalence of serious crashes and fatalities.
The RACQ, in conjunction with the other state and territory automobile clubs, has developed
the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP), which maps crash risk and assigns star
ratings according to design features of the road. Together, these highlight poor sections of
road where engineering improvements have the most potential to save lives5.
As shown in Table 2 and graphically in Figure 2, most of northern Queensland’s national
network is rated two or three stars. The exception is the Barkly Highway where 16% is
currently rated four-star for safety. RACQ considers that afocus of government should be on
eliminating all one and two-star sections of national highway in Queensland. Better roads safe
lives and bring down the cost of crashes. When a two-star AusRAP-rated road is improved to
three stars, the crash costs per vehicle kilometre travelled are halved6.
Table 2: AusRAP star ratings for Queensland’s northern national highways
Highways
A2 Barkly Highway
A6 Flinders Highway
A2 Landsborough Highway
M1/A1 Bruce Highway (all)
Length (km)
312
743
1011
1673
Proportion in each Star Rating
1-star
0%
0%
0%
3%
2-star
10%
20%
13%
42%
3-star
74%
76%
86%
52%
4-star
16%
3%
0%
3%
5-star
0%
0%
0%
0%
Source: AusRAP Star Ratings Report 2013
5
The Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) report assesses the design features and safety
performance of national highways across Australia against a star-rating scale, with five stars being the best and
one star the worst. Information on how AusRAP Star Ratings are determined can be found at
http://www.racq.com.au/motoring/roads/australian_road_assessment_program_ausrap
6 Australian Automobile Association, Comparing Risk Maps and Star Ratings: AusRAP Technical Working Paper,
2008, p12
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Figure 2: AusRAP Star Rating Map
Source: AusRAP Star Ratings Report 2013
To improve northern Queensland highways’ star ratings, RACQ believes a dedicated program
of safety works is needed. Required safety improvements include:
 Safety barriers
 Removal of roadside hazards
 Audio tactile line markings (rumble strips)
 Intersection improvements
 Lane duplication
 Lane widening
 Road surface improvements
 Signalised crossings
 Central median barriers
 Shoulder sealing.
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Improving mobile communications along major highways
RACQ would like to see additional phone towers placed along major highways in order to
improve mobile phone coverage. As a motoring organisation, RACQ is mindful of the need for
motorists who break down in remote locations to have access to mobile phone
communications.
Better mobile communication on routes traversing the north of Australia is important for driver
safety. It could also help improve emergency response following a crash.
RACQ has always maintained that investing in better, safer roads via engineering
improvements can limit the recurring cost of death and injury on our roads. It is now becoming
increasingly apparent that having the communications in place to promptly alert authorities of
a road crash and minimising the time taken to reach the crash victims can save lives.
Reducing post crash response is one of the five pillars of the United Nations Decade of Action
for Road Safety 2011 – 2020 and it is now widely accepted that there exists a golden hour
during which the application of pre-hospital support care can enhance patient survival. Studies
of multi-fatality crashes show that in remote areas of Australia, of those deaths that did not
occur instantaneously, 45% occurred before the victim received medical attention, compared
to 21% when the crash occurred on an urban road. It is thought that the provision of more
prompt medical attention, including regional trauma teams, has the potential to save 17% of
Australian rural road crash fatalities7. Unfortunately, in many cases efforts to reduce post
crash response are futile without first ensuring adequate mobile phone coverage. If we are
serious about reducing road fatalities we need adequate mobile phone coverage, better
response times and better post-crash care.
Increasingly sophisticated vehicles will also eventually necessitate the need for improved
communication on all roads in Australia. None of the emergent vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-tobase systems (such as automated emergency calls or calls back to the dealer in the event of
vehicle system problems) will be operational unless the roads are supported with adequate
mobile communication infrastructure.
The Bruce Highway
The Bruce Highway is Queensland’s major transport and freight route. It is also the deadliest
highway in Australia. It averages 40 deaths and over 400 serious injuries a year. In 2012 there
were 53 fatalities on the Bruce Highway.
The 1673 kilometre highway is largely two-lane and is below the standard required for
Queensland’s busiest transport route. A combination of weather impacts, heavy traffic and
chronic under-funding has resulted in this highway degenerating.
All six sections of the Bruce Highway, including those in the north from Rockhampton to
Cairns, made it to the Top 10 in RACQ’s 2011 Unroadworthy Roads Survey. These same
sections performed very poorly in AusRAP analysis.
22nd ARRB Conference – Research into Practice, Canberra Australia, 2006
© ARRB Group Ltd and Authors 2006
7
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The 2013 AusRAP Star Rating Australia’s National Network of Highways report produced a
damning indictment on the condition of the Bruce Highway8. Approximately half of the Bruce
Highway from Rockhampton to Cairns scored one and two stars. This is considered well
below the acceptable safety standard for a major transport route. The poor star ratings on the
Bruce Highway are primarily a result of undivided roads with high traffic volumes that have
narrow sealed shoulders, frequent intersections and hazardous roadsides.
The majority (71%) of the Bruce Highway from Rockhampton to St Lawrence and 44% from
Rockhampton to Miriam Vale scored one and two stars in the 2013 AusRAP report. Similarly,
90% of the Sarina to Mackay link and 40% of the Mackay to Proserpine link was rated one
and two stars. Most of the Townsville to Ayr link (73%) was rated one and two stars and 34%
of the Townsville to Ingham section was rated one and two stars. Further north, 57% of the
Innisfail to Cairns link and 48% of the Ingham to Innisfail link were rated one and two stars.
RACQ believes that a long-term strategy with attached funding commitments is needed to
eliminate all one and two-star sections and rebuild this vital highway to an appropriate fourstar AusRAP rating.
The RACQ has been pleased to see that in recent years both the Commonwealth and
Queensland Governments appear to be united in the goal of upgrading the Bruce Highway.
The Queensland Government has committed an additional $1 billion for the Bruce Highway
over 10 years and the Federal Government has promised $6.7 billion over 10 years for the
Bruce Highway. The Green Paper notes that $3 billion of the $6.7 billion in Federal funding is
located in north Queensland.
The State Government has recently identified an alternative to the Bruce Highway, essentially
an ‘inland highway’ of rural roads linking southeast Queensland to the Tablelands in far north
Queensland. These comprise the Kennedy, Burnett and Gregory Highways as well as the
Kennedy Developmental Road (Hann Highway) and Gregory Developmental Road.
While the program of works on the Bruce Highway is paramount, road closures due to
incidents and flooding are unable to be resolved adequately and alternative routes are not of
suitable standard. The RACQ sees value in upgrading an alternative route for road safety,
productivity and efficiency improvements as well as delivering much needed network
redundancy when the Bruce Highway is closed.
Peak Downs Highway
While not part of the federally-funded National Land Transport Network, the Peak Downs
Highway is worthy of specific consideration for federal investment given its strategic
importance. The Peak Downs Highway is approximately 267 km, running north-east from
Gregory Development Road to the Bruce Highway. It links Mackay to the region’s mines.
In 2013 RACQ commissioned an Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) study of
this highway. More than half of the highway was given the worst ratings of one and two stars,
with only one percent rated four stars (see Table 3). RACQ considers that State Highways
should have a minimum three-star safety rating, so this is well below an acceptable safety
standard.
8
The AusRAP report can be viewed at www.racq.com.au/ausrap.
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On many sections of the Peak Downs Highway motorists face a high crash risk due to poor
design features such as roadside hazards, narrow road shoulders and unsafe intersections.
From 2007-2011, 15 people were killed and another 72 seriously injured on the Peak Downs
Highway9.
Without investment in road safety improvements this crash figure is likely to increase given
that traffic volumes on the highway are increasing by more than five percent every year due to
the mining activity in the central Queensland region, making it one of the fastest growing
corridors in the state.
Table 3: AusRAP star ratings for the Peak Downs Highway
Highways
Peak Downs Highway
Length (km)
267
Proportion in each Star Rating
1-star
5%
2-star
54%
3-star
40%
4-star
1%
5-star
0%
Source: AusRAP Star Ratings Map for car occupants – Peak Downs Highway 2013
The AusRAP study found that an $80 million investment in road safety improvements would
reduce the length of one and two star sections on the Peak Downs Highway from 59% to
10%. This could prevent about 70 road deaths and serious injuries over the next 20 years.
The top five road safety improvements required to reduce deaths and injuries on the Peak
Downs Highway are:
 Roadside barriers or roadside hazard clearing
 Improved skid resistance
 Additional (overtaking) lanes
 Shoulder rumble strips
 Right turn pockets at 26 intersections.
This $80 million road safety investment is in addition to a proposed Eton Range crossing
upgrade that will address a significant blackspot. An Australian Government contribution to
this project could bring it into the four year QTRIP funding program.
2. Development of an east west infrastructure corridor (Project Iron
Boomerang)
The RACQ supports consideration of an east west railroad linking the north of Queensland to
northern Western Australia and associated road and communication infrastructure.
A project to develop heavy rail across northern Australia (known as Project Iron Boomerang),
has been developed by East West Line Parks Limited. RACQ considers that the railroad,
combined with road and communication infrastructure, would form a valuable nation building
project.
9
AusRAP Star Rating Map for car occupants – Peak Downs Highway, 2013, p4
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There is a need to improve roads and communication across northern Australia. The Iron
Boomerang Project could be expanded in its scope to encompass a road and communication
component, along with any other power or pipeline infrastructure needs.
The rail component of an east west infrastructure corridor would link the Pilbara iron ore mines
in Western Australia with the Bowen Basin coal mines in north Queensland. The heavy haul
railway would take full payloads each way over a 3,300 kilometre journey (coal to iron ore –
iron ore to coal) to value adding first stage steel manufacturing Steel Parks at Abbot Point in
Queensland and Newman in Western Australia.
The proposed railroad would be among the world’s most efficient heavy-haul, standard-gauge
railroads. Project Iron Boomerang would provide estimated productivity gains and value-add
Australia’s coal and iron ore by 50% to export 44 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of slab steel
equivalent to A$22 billion per annum delivered to east Asia. The rule of thumb generated
economic benefit is usually 3 to 1 in dollar terms for every dollar of steel produced. The
outcome is A$22 billion of steel, plus A$66 billion of directly related economic generated
benefit for a total of A$88 billion per annum.
Against current operating practice for world steelmaking, Project Iron Boomerang offers a
world productivity gain of 20 - 30%.
East West Line Parks Ltd predict 35,000 directly related permanent jobs would result with
20,000 at Abbott point and 12,000 at Newman Western Australia and the rest around
Australia.
The project would also meet a fundamental need given the limited existing road and rail routes
from northern Queensland across to northern Western Australia. The Northern Territory is
connected to Queensland by road principally via the Barkly Highway to Mount Isa. From there,
the major road networks go north to the Gulf, south to Boulia and Longreach, and east to
Cairns, Townsville, Mackay and Gladstone. The Northern Territory and Western Australia are
connected by road via the Victoria Highway through Kununurra to the Great Northern
Highway, which extends through Broome and Port Hedland to just north of Perth10.
The project has economic, environmental, national and global importance to Australia and its
major trading nations and steelmaker partners in the steel industry. It is likely to be the most
sustainable and lowest marginal cost steel supply chain in the world. Creating a multi-user,
multi-purpose, open access infrastructure corridor including road and communications, will
place this as a major nation building project.
The RACQ believes the Australian Government should assess the feasibility of this project
with a view to facilitating progress across the commercial enterprises and governments
involved. In an era of manufacturing departing our shores, the opportunity for a high
technology value-add enterprise, principally funded by anchor tenants involved in Australia’s
world class iron ore and coking coal deposits, should not be overlooked.
10
Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia, Commonwealth of Australia 2014 p13
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On the face of it, the proposal offers a major rail, road and communication corridor that
delivers strong benefits for the economy and contributes to mobility, safety and accessibility
for motorists and opens up new geographic areas for industry.
Conclusion
The RACQ welcomes the Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia as a good step
forward. Northern Australia has a big part to play in Australia’s future economic prosperity, as
do its roads and rail.
It is hoped that improved road and rail freight planning will raise the quality of Queensland's
major northern infrastructure and roads. Roads should be fit for purpose and safe enough to
accommodate heavy vehicles at high speeds sharing the road with other motorists.
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