Western Australia agricultural supply chain improvements

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Western Australia agricultural supply chain improvements

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EARLY STAGE PROPOSAL
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POTENTIAL INVESTMENT OPTIONS
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INVESTMENT READY PROPOSAL
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PROJECT DELIVERY
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POST COMPLETION REVIEW

Western Australia agricultural supply chain improvements

A graphic of the Australian continent with WA state shaded and small dot representing Perth.
LOCATION
Western Australia
GEOGRAPHY
Small towns, rural communities and remote areas
SECTOR
Transport
OUTCOME CATEGORY
Regional Connectivity
PROPONENT
WA Government
PROBLEM TIMEFRAME
Near term (0-5 years)
DATE ADDED
26 February 2020
_freight_network_improvements
Problem

Western Australia’s regional freight task from the Wheatbelt Region relies heavily on road, rail and port infrastructure, but these assets are aging and imposing high costs on supply chains. These issues impact on the Wheatbelt, Great Southern, Mid West and Goldfields-Esperance regions.
Agriculture is a significant industry for Western Australia. In 2018–19, the gross value of agricultural production in the state was $10.7 billion, which represents 18% of the total gross value of agricultural production in Australia and three percent of Western Australia’s Gross State Product.
Western Australia’s regional freight network faces a number of challenges, including:

•    a growing and changing freight task
•    ageing and under-performing road and rail infrastructure, including poor surface condition and road width
•    consolidation of grain receival facilities
•    increasing use of larger vehicles, but insufficient road mass limits
•    pressure to increase supply chain productivity
•    poor road safety outcomes.

Freight transport bottlenecks and a lack of capacity along key agricultural rail and road freight routes limit export volumes during periods of the year for Western Australian growers where prices received would be at their highest.

Early-stage Proposal

Potential options to address the proposal include a program of works to assess and prioritise sections of the Wheatbelt, Great Southern, Mid West and Goldfields-Esperance regions. Potential improvements include:

•    addressing maintenance backlogs or implementing pre-emptive maintenance
•    partial road and rail upgrades, such as cross-section improvements
•    full road upgrades, including geometric corrections
•    provision of new road and rail routes.

The Western Australian Government has developed a WA Agricultural Supply Chain Improvement Strategy to improve regional freight infrastructure across these regions. 

This proposal captures the previous Infrastructure Priority List proposal for Wheatbelt Secondary Freight Network improvements, which was submitted to Infrastructure Australia by RDA Wheatbelt. The Wheatbelt Secondary Freight Network connects producers to the network of grain receival points, rail terminals and state highways across approximately 4,675 km of roads.

Next Steps

Stage 1 of the program is in development, with construction expected to commence in 2022.

The proponent is developing potential investment options for subsequent stages of the program (Stage 2 of Infrastructure Australia’s Assessment Framework).

 

Refer to Infrastructure Glossary for terms and definitions.