The father of Inland Rail is advancing an ignored section from his original plan, with a green twist that could transform Australian freight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everald Compton, 92, is no stranger to getting big projects moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Australia’s most successful corporate fundraisers, he founded National Seniors Australia, co-founded the Brisbane Lions and in 1996 visited prime minister John Howard with a bold idea for a freight rail line from Melbourne to Darwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the next 20 years, Mr Compton invested his own time and money as a consultant on Inland Rail, a plan to build the 1700km Melbourne to Brisbane sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when the Nationals under Barnaby Joyce took full control, he was kicked off the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was dispensed with without any compensation, but that doesn’t worry me,” Mr Compton told AAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’ve been kicked out of a lot of things in my life.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he wasn’t about to let years of work be derailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I just said, ‘Well, I’ll do the second section of the track from Gladstone Port, which will link up with Inland Rail somewhere in the region of Goondiwindi’.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Compton believes Queensland’s port of Gladstone, a coal-focused commodities terminal, could become Australia’s major container port as fossil fuel use declines but the berths required for today’s massive container ships get deeper and deeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only Gladstone and Sydney’s Port Botany can take the ultra-large 21,000-plus container vessels but Botany faces distribution difficulties and is further from Australia’s trade partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We proved that freight by rail can get to Sydney four days quicker than if the boat went on from Gladstone,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“And then (to) Melbourne, seven days quicker.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Gladstone became Australia’s container hub, then his freight line – now called GreenLink – would become the keystone to connect Inland Rail with the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This railway’s going to transform the way that freight goes in Australia and it will save the city of Gladstone from demise.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The “semi-retired” corporate fundraiser has drummed up letters of support from all levels of government, political parties and freight companies, not to mention investors waiting in the wings to back the $7 billion project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But a chance meeting at a luncheon soon added another missing piece to Mr Compton’s puzzle – how to power the trains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’d always envisaged we’d have hydrogen trains that would run on our track, that the boats coming into Gladstone would eventually be hydrogen powered or methanol powered,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sitting across from Mr Compton at a Climate 200 luncheon was Michael Myer, executive director at Sunshine Hydro – a “multi-hybrid” energy project using pumped hydro to shore up wind and solar energy while producing hydrogen and green methanol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company is the brainchild of civil and software engineer Chris Baker, who saw beyond pumped hydro as an arbitrage instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So when prices are low, you pump. When prices are high, you generate,” Mr Myer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“But if you can turn and re-imagine pumped hydro as a tool to firm-up the renewable energy, you get a totally different outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You’re able to produce this 24\/7 carbon-free energy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Baker’s algorithms use National Energy Market data to optimise the use of every electron in the ecosystem at any given time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunshine Hydro’s flagship Djandori Gung-i project is modelled to produce an average of more than 99 per cent carbon-free energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After striking up a partnership with Mr Compton, it will also supply methanol for trains on the Gladstone freight line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We would be producing 600,000 tonnes of green methanol a day … so it’s about roughly 230 million litres a year,” Mr Myer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In theory sufficient to run all the trains … up to about a million movements.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Green methanol has been emerging as a competitor to hydrogen in freight’s energy transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Danish giant Maersk deployed the first of its 18 methanol-enabled vessels earlier this year and multiple locomotive freight companies are testing the fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s a complete change of how heavy transportation is done,” Mr Myer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Compton and Mr Myer expect both GreenLink and Djandori Gung-i to be up and running by about 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Mr Compton has forged ahead with GreenLink, Inland Rail has suffered multi-billion dollar cost blowouts, delays and mismanagement, according to a damning 2023 independent report led by Kerry Schott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s now expected to cost $31.4 billion, up from a $16.4 billion costing in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Commonwealth-owned Australian Rail Track Corporation has been restructured and its leadership replaced, including some board appointments made by the former federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Compton said negotiations to connect Inland Rail with Greenlink have been sunnier since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“All the hillbillies and gangsters that were employed by Barnaby have been fired,” he joked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Meeting with the ARTC now is a privilege.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Compton and the corporation are lobbying the federal government to fund Inland Rail’s final sections, but he isn’t waiting around for the project to reach Goondiwindi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He plans to join GreenLink with the national rail network at North Star, south of the NSW-Queensland border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Trains can go all over from there (North Star), they’ll go a lot quicker once Inland Rail is finally built.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ARTC confirmed it had discussed the Goondiwindi to Gladstone line with Mr Compton and GreenLink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“ARTC would always work constructively with any party that would seek to enhance the national rail network,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company said it was prepared to provide input leading to an environmental impact statement and to test assumptions for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, Mr Compton has his work cut out to get his rail dream over the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The negotiations are constant and the bureaucratic wrangles are constant, but at my age I’ve got nothing to lose by terrorising these blokes,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Australia has gone a hundred years of going to sleep. It’s got to catch up.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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