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Sydney's secret hub that is flying under the radar
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Like a runway, a two-kilometre strip of asphalt and concrete with rail
tracks down its centre stretches into the distance in Sydney's south-
west. Welcome to the new interstate freight rail terminal, which
opened in early April and serves as the entry point at a massive hub
at Moorebank for 1.8 kilometre-long freight trains arriving from
across the country.
"Rather than landing a plane, we're dealing with large interstate
trains which come across from Perth and Melbourne and eventually from
Brisbane and land on the terminal here at Moorebank," explains James
Baulderstone, the chief executive of the federal government's National
Intermodal Corporation.
"It's the road and rail version of Western Sydney Airport. But, in
some ways, this is more sophisticated than an airport because an
airport is one mode. You've got the inland port, the train and the
truck."
National Intermodal Corporation chief executive James
Baulderstone.Credit: Nick Moir
Unlike the new airport, the giant intermodal precinct at Moorebank
flies well below the radar despite being key to the vast array of
consumer goods that end up in hundreds of thousands of homes and
businesses.
Sydney University ports and maritime logistics professor Michael Bell
calls the Moorebank hub "Sydney's best kept secret".
The massive facility, just off the M5 motorway about 35 kilometres
from the CBD, will have a growing role in the city's day-to-day life.
It will also be crucial to ensuring Australia reverses a decline in
rail's share of freight criss-crossing the country.
The amount of freight transported around the country has tripled over
the past eight years.
Yet, the massive increase in cargo has been placed on the back of
trucks instead of trains, piling pressure on roads. As a result,
trains' share of freight has fallen to 9 per cent from 30 per cent in
the 1980s. "Trucks have a very important role, but you want the right
mode moving the right loads," Baulderstone says.
Located near the banks of the Georges River, the Moorebank hub has
sprung up in seven years, covering more than 240 hectares - almost the
size of Sydney's CBD between Circular Quay and Central Station. Once
completed within the next two to five years, it will house more than
850,000 square metres of warehouses.
Trains carrying containers shuttle between Qube's import-export
terminal at Moorebank and Port Botany.Credit: Nick Moir
The interstate rail hub and a neighbouring import-export terminal sit
at the centre of the sprawling Moorebank complex, flanked on either
side by massive warehouses operated by the likes of Woolworths. The
supermarket giant's large new two-storey warehouse is due to be
completed shortly and will feature 20-metre high cranes lifting
products.
"It's like something out of _The Matrix_ ," Baulderstone says.
"Woolies is by far the most sophisticated high-bay warehouse."
While long freight trains pull into the interstate hub, the import-
export terminal operated by logistics company Qube Holdings serves as
the entry point for 600-metre-long trains that shuttle between Port
Botany and Moorebank. Twelve automated cranes lift containers off
trains and stack them in a large yard.
Qube general manager Sean Hovey says the automated terminal is
designed purely for import-export shipping containers. "We have got
the opportunity to have three port shuttle trains in motion at any one
time," he says.
It makes the import-export terminal, which opened in 2019, a de facto
extension of Port Botany, helped by the completion in February of the
long-promised duplication of the rail line to the port.
"You have your overseas containers coming in from the ships; you have
trains doing large interstate movements and trucks are doing the last
drop-off and delivery. We're not a rail terminal - we're an
intermodal," Baulderstone adds.
The precinct is built on former Defence Force land near the Holsworthy
Army Barracks. Unexploded bombs were discovered during the
construction of the precinct, requiring the military to be called up
to remove the ordnance.
"These were bombs from the '40s, '50 and '60s," Baulderstone says.
"This is where they used to have their Vietnam tunnels for practising
for the war, tank train facilities." A lot of ordnance was found, he
adds.
With the Liverpool CBD skyline looming in the distance, the precinct
also features the country's largest rooftop solar project. It will
eventually have the potential to generate 100 megawatts, enough to
power 40,000 homes and make it the equivalent of a mid-sized
electricity station. Plans are afoot to install a large battery to
store energy from the solar panels.
Big projects like motorways and stadiums are popular with politicians
but less exciting ones, like the intermodal, often do more to improve
our living standards. It also promises good bang for buck.
The business case for the intermodal estimated it would create about
$11 billion in economic benefits over three decades, including $120
million a year for the economy of south-western Sydney. This includes
cuts to freight costs, traffic congestion, accidents and carbon
emissions while improving productivity.
That will ultimately mean savings for businesses and consumers.
A Qube worker in the control room for the company's import-expert
terminal at Moorebank.Credit: Nick Moir
Rob Tyson, an economist at consultancy Polis Partners, says the
Moorebank intermodal precinct will figure prominently in the day-to-
day life of Sydney.
"It's going to touch almost everyone, from stocking the shelves on a
daily basis to getting parcels delivered across the city," he says.
"Our freight supply chains operate behind the scenes. Not many people
understand them, but they're the oil in the engine that allows
important things to happen, as basic as our daily consuming. People
only realise how important these things are when they break."
At full capacity, the Moorebank intermodal precinct could take 3000
heavy truck movements off Sydney roads each day.
"The way the intermodal will relieve road transport pressures around
Port Botany, support business supply chains and help get goods
efficiently onto our freight rail networks to the major highways that
run north and south from Sydney will be transformative," Tyson says.
"It's a behind-the-scenes investment that will benefit the community
and business for the long term."
Qube's giant warehouse at Moorebank.Credit: Nick Moir
A final report recently released from a review commissioned by the
Minns government into Sydney's rail network outlined the need to
transport a greater proportion of freight by train.
"At the moment, there are a lot of disincentives to invest in rail
freight," says Carolyn Walsh, the chair of the National Transport
Commission, who led the review.
"COVID really showed if you get disruption to supply chains you wind
up with empty shells in supermarkets. It's about recognising that
freight does have a direct impact on community wellbeing. We have to
find ways of actually investing in cleaner, greener technologies in
rail."
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Sydney University's Bell says more logistics firms will need to
relocate near the Moorebank freight hub if it is to live up to its
potential. "The challenge will be encouraging enough warehouses and
distribution centres to locate either in the Moorebank facility or
close to it because the name of the game is getting containers off the
road network and onto the rail network," he says.
The Moorebank freight hub opening has also created a "policy dilemma"
for the state government, given WestConnex and the $2.6 billion Sydney
Gateway motorway improves road access to Port Botany for trucks. "The
hope is that the Moorebank facility gets containers off the roads onto
the rail network," Bell says. "The problem is that it and the
WestConnex motorway are now sort of in competition."
While the NSW government wants to shift container freight to rail, new
motorways make it easier for trucks simply to "rock up to collect
containers" from the port. Bell says NSW needs to "formulate a
consistent policy" to switch containers from road to rail.
Federal transport and infrastructure Catherine King says the Moorebank
freight hub will connect to the future Inland Rail project "enabling
movement of vital consumer goods" between Australia's biggest cities.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese opens the interstate rail terminal at
Moorebank in early April.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
But massive cost overruns and delays on the Inland Rail, a scheme to
connect Melbourne and Brisbane with a new 1600-kilometre freight
corridor through regional Victoria, NSW and Queensland, has
underscored the challenges in improving Australia's rail freight
system.
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The Inland Rail project was budgeted to cost $8.4 billion when
announced by the Turnbull government in 2017 but a review last year
found that had blown out to more than $31 billion.
Amid the challenges, Australasian Railway Association chief executive
Caroline Wilkie says there is an urgent need to boost the proportion
of containerised freight moved by rail, and to take pressure off
roads.
"Our research has confirmed that well-located, open-access intermodal
terminals like Moorebank are critical to increasing rail freight," she
says.
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