Inland Rail - Narromine to Narrabri

See attachment.

This objection is made on behalf of NSW Farmers and the Country Women's Association of NSW who rely on the attached letter of objection.

Submission in response to the EIS for Inland Rail N2N

I am a property owner located in the greenfield section between Curban and Mt Tenandra NSW. The farm is a family run farming business and I have grown up and lived in the immediate area for almost 45 years. My concerns for the project are.

1. Route selection

- I oppose the projects current alignment in the N2N greenfield area. The inadequate socio-economic modelling and a poor cost benefit analyst gives me no confidence in the route selection process.
-All community concerns have been ignored, assuming it can roll out a rail line through prime agricultural land such as this section when there is a perfectly good existing rail corridor just to the west of here (Gilgandra to Coonamble rail line).
-Accepting demands of big business and keeping it under the 24hr travel time instead of a more common-sense and cost affective route (existing line) have been ignored for the sake of just a few minutes travel time. Instead we are faced with the devaluation of farm businesses and destruction of people’s livelihoods in the current path.

2. Flooding and Hydrology

With it's current alignment and design this is undoubtedly my greatest concern yet.
I have reviewed photos the proposed design in the Map Book section of the EIS. There are different colour shaded areas along the Blue alignment line that represent culverts for drainage. In my opinion from local experience, looking at the culvert numbers and location, there are about half as many needed and the ones that are there are not even in the right place. ARTC have NO IDEA. There can be little to no confidence in ARTC's Hydrology modeling on what I have seen on the information provided. This stretch of alignment runs Nth/Sth and parallel between the Warrumbungle Mountain range and the Castlereagh river (approximately 55km apart). The water that runs off the Mountains and surrounding area to the west of those mountains goes west to the river. With the slope of the land and size of the catchment, in big rainfall events that is an enormous amount of relatively fast flowing water. The Rail line if constructed in it's proposed location and with seriously inadequate culverts to deal with this water will act as a giant levy bank, flooding by damming water upstream (eastern side) and concentrating flows out the western side through the insufficient number of culverts inevitably causing scouring and erosion which will change the landscape forever. This will seriously affect how farming business operate into the future and devalue these properties. How will ARTC fix this? Flooding out crops/pastures and and scouring new watercourses across prime agricultural land is unacceptable. Some very clever people a long time ago designed and constructed the Gilgandra to Coonamble rail line just west of the Castlereagh river, no doubt to combat this very problem.

3. Summary

ARTC's credibility really comes into question.
-Rushing to roll out such a nationally significant infrastructure project with a flawed route selection process favoring a travel time line over all other criteria.
-The consultation process is nothing short of a box ticking exercise, the drop in sessions an absolute waste of time and best described as a "smoke and mirrors" show. No meaningful information provided at any I have attended.
- The EIS contains very little detail in the information around flooding and hydrology. In my immediate area the design appears to be of an extremely low standard and budget to deal with the watershed off the surrounding landscape.
- The EIS reads like ARTC are making it up as they go along on many of the construction topics including groundwater drawdown, noise/ vibration, contamination and air quality. The sections under Potential Impacts and Mitigation Measures and full of phrases like "will be further refined during detailed design" and "impacts could increase". I am not prepared to accept ARTC's guess work.
- Once this rail line is constructed there will be NO undoing what's done. We the affected landholders will be the ones ultimately left with the mess ARTC create.
- The EIS must be rejected. ARTC need to deliver far more certainty in their design detail and be forth coming and transparent with all information.

Thankyou for the opportunity to reply to the EIS.

Submission from Paul Tym Coonamble, Teridgerie
The Inlandrail Project and the EIS presented is an affront to the Australian Tax payer, who has unwittingly been burdened with the cost of this demonstrable economic, environmental and social disaster
From the very beginning to where we are now the ARTC have proven to be way out of their depth
Enabled by a raft of National Party MPs desperately trying claim some relevance in a political environment that can no longer sustain their outdated views
ARTC , when cornered on the many issues that arise from InlandRail, defer immediately to the default position that they are building IR under the remit of the Federal Government
Members of the Government when questioned over IR issues defer to “we have the utmost confidence in ARTC to design and deliver IR”.
That leaves adversely affected stakeholders in a no win situation
My property will have the Rail line running along an Eastern Boundary in the Teridgerie district.
At no stage have I been consulted on the impacts the rail line will have on the water ways and gully’s on my property that form the headwaters of the Nebea Creek.
The matter of fencing in the EIS is appalling
Running a large herd of Santa Gertrudis cattle makes fencing standards a priority but no in depth information is given.
We need to cross the proposed line to access other land holdings but no consultation has been undertaken, excluding ARTC infamous “drop in sessions” usually staffed by well meaning but “detail deficient “ ARTC employees and associates.
Once again this leaves impacted stakeholders in a no win situation
The EIS in my opinion is littered with mistakes, diminished by its omissions (note 1) and deceptive in its role to gain development consent for InlandRail
It is my opinion that by its very definition this EIS cannot be approved as it fails to state adequate information as to the impact the line will have on the environment
It is impossible to comprehend an approval when there is full knowledge that most of this project has been progressed on desk top modelling and minimal consultation with landholders
Paul Tym


Note 1 ) No mention of School Bus on Coonamble Baradine road

I request that the Minister refuses this Project in its current form, and requires the ARTC to supply detailed factual information, sourced from independent experts, especially on the subject of exploring a more suitable route. A proper Cost Benefit Analysis must be provided.

Objection concerns are listed in attached submission document.

Please see attached "Submission by PR & WG Galley", sent as a pdf file by PR & WG Galley

Our family has farmed for 5 generations in Narromine area since the early1880's.
I object to the project proposal for on environmental, business and community consultation grounds.
The project on the proposed alignment would drastically alter the floodplain hydrology of the local area with major impacts on the dispersion of floodwaters. Those changes in flow patterns across a wide area are of a magnitude many times greater than if the proposal had continued with the original alignment that had been subject to a larger degree certainty with the hydrological modelling.
The current proposal if enacted would drastically impact on the connection of the East/West Mitchell Highway link during large scale flood events. The disruption to business operations for a large portion of the Central West and Far West that relies on the transportation and logistics links that the Mitchell Highway provide would be very damaging.
The community engagement for the proposed alignment to the East of Narromine has been significantly different and less open to scrutiny than the longer and more transparent discussions that the community were invited to contribute to for the original alignment. The lack of transparency from Inland Rail surrounding the change in alignment from the West to the East of Narromine is very concerning for us and the community as it provides no basis of trust that equal planning and decision processes have been applied to the original and amended alignment options.
The proposed alignment option at Narromine has the potential to cause major disruption and damage in large flood events that residents have experienced within lived experience.
I object to the continuation of the proposal as outlined and request that the planning for the project present all the relevant evidence and science that informed the decision making process that led to an Eastern alignment into a deep floodplain area rather than the originally and comprehensively studied Western alignment that would not have had such a substantial effect on water flows across the lower Macquarie floodplain.
I request that the current proposal be rejected on the above grounds in the consideration that a more appropriate option was originally identified and quantified.

Thankyou for your consideration of this objection.

See attached:

Please see attachment.

Attached is my submission to object the EIS for the SSI-9487 Inland Rail - Narromine to Narrabri. This project should not even be at this stage as Australian Rail Track Corporation have not done the background work for the Environment Impact Statement to even come close to satisfying the SEARs.

Please see attached submission

We object to this project based on the publicly available information

1. Concerns about the impact this rail line will have on the town and surrounding area. Particularly in terms of traffic congestion in the town due to the high number of trains travelling through on a daily basis.
2.Noise impact from the constant rail activity impacts our right to quiet enjoyment of our land. Railway crossings impede traffic flow
3 Flooding . Most of our area is a flood zone, what impact will these lines have on pushing flood water onto roads & farmland etc?
4. Lack of transparency about the project and poor consultation with the community
5 Have atlernative routes been considered? I have been advised that there is an alternative route that would be more appropriate and is further out of town.

I have sent my Submission in a file but I can not attach my 4 photos. I will have to ring the office Monday and if you help me get my photo on that would be great thanks
Barbara Deans

Attached.

Additional Google Earth File submitted but unable to be uploaded

Dear Sir/Madam


I Object strongly to the building of the Inland Rail from Narromine to Narrabri.

I support The Gamilaraay people in their objection to the rail line incursion into their sacred sites. Is there no lesson learnt from Rio Tinto’s disgraceful destruction of the traditional owners’ sacred sites?

The Pilliga Forest flora and fauna will be put at risk by the rail line cutting this unique forest in half.
The Pilliga has been under severe stress during this most recent drought.
This forest is unique in its wildlife as it is the meeting point of the temperate and tropical regions and is the only forest of its kind bringing together species from both regions..
My husband and I have visited the Pilliga specifically to see the wide and beautiful variety of birdlife which is particularly rich, but will be in immediate danger if the rail line goes ahead.
Koalas are known to inhabit this forest and no proper study has be carried out to find populations which have survived the terrible drought.
No koala habitat should be damaged or lost as the threat of koala extinction in NSW is real and imminent.

The line will run through and disrupt the water tables and valuable agricultural lands where food for people in our cities and people around the world is grown and dependent upon.
The farmers are opposed to the rail line.

The practical and economic solution is to use the existing rail line.

Yours faithfully
Keelah Lam
36 Lauderdale Ave
Fairlight 2094
Ph: 0479090240