NRRT_Supporters_Logo_Cropped

NEWSLETTER August 2018

Stokers Tunnel. Photo by Troy Nelson.

Tweed Team working hard for us!

  • A heritage consultant has been commissioned to undertake several localised heritage management plans, commencing with a heritage conservation management and precinct plan for the Murwillumbah Railway Station.
  • An addendum to the Tweed Valley Rail Trail Business Case that updates the estimated operational and maintenance costs is being finalised for approval by Infrastructure NSW and should be sufficient to enable the funding agreement between Tweed Council and NSW Government to be finalised.
  • The Council’s environmental assessment for the proposed rail trail is almost complete, except for some targeted monitoring of the bat and glow worm colony in Burringbar tunnel which will continue for a further 6-12 months.
  • Local Land Services has been commissioned to prepare a Biosecurity Risk Management Plan and this work has commenced.
  • Documentation for a prospective tenderer expression of interest (EOI) is being prepared for public notice upon the funding agreement being completed.
  • Public information sessions to be held in those rural villages where the rail trail will pass through is being scheduled for September. 
  • Transport for NSW maintenance contractor John Holland Group Pty Ltd is finalising an asset condition inspection, report and drone flyover to assist with the land transfer process that will see the railway corridor within the Tweed LGA closed and transferred from Transport for NSW to Department of Industry – Lands Division. The government’s preferred ‘model’ for rail trails in NSW has been rolled out through the Tumbarumba to Rosewood Rail Trail and as we understand there is a legislative ability for Transport for NSW (TfNSW) to acquire any land for the purpose of a State transport corridor and that would include reacquiring a former railway corridor.  We also understand there is a memorandum of understanding between TfNSW and Crown land concerning the potential future reacquisition should the corridor be required for transport purposes and that in itself would further prevent the land being sold off by Crown land.
  • In addition to the Tweed project team visiting the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail to inspect the various pavement options, the staff have been conducting site visits of the various rural roads and quarry’s within the Shire with the view to finalising their concept design.

UPDATE ON CASINO TO ELTHAM SECTION

The Bridge over Leycester Creek is in a pretty bad way and will need some major work doing soon if we are to save it! It is heritage listed so even more reason to try and get some funding to save it.  We will be starting a petition soon and it would be great if everyone could support this.

  • Base mapping GIS from Casino to Eltham has been completed by GMT – WBM. This has been paid for by NRRT‘s crowd funding campaign. 
  • The Ecological and Heritage Assessment has been completed by GeoLink – paid for by www.foundation’s donation from last year.
  • All bridges from Casino to Burringbar have been assessed by our in house engineers.
  • We have made a down payment to Business Sense, the company engaged to do the business case.

Activities

Some of us met with Janelle Saffin and Penny Sharpe to talk about the rail trail.

Jenny Dowell (Ex-mayor Lismore and NRRT assoc.), Janelle Saffin (Labour Candidate for Lismore), Penny Sharpe (Shadow Minister for Environment, Heritage,Tourism and Trade), Marie Lawton and Geoff Meers (NRRT assoc.) Labour very supportive of the rail trail.

Great news from Janelle Saffin at NSW Labor conference: 
Rail Trail Win. Endorsed : NSW Labor Conference – Legislation to prohibit sell off of rail corridors – specific purpose – protect rail trail development Casino to Murwillumbah line. Such matters must go before the Parliament.


NRRT joins with Cycle For LIfe

Spreading the Northern Rivers Rail Trail love at Casuarina , Tweed Shire and the Cycle for Life initiative (promoting organ donation).
5km walk/cycle and 30/50/100km cycle . What an amazing day with people from all walks of life taking part.
With Marie Lawton, Geoff Bensley, Sharon Yarrington and Tim Shanasy.


Consult with High Country Rail Trail on Trestle Bridges

Some of us met with Max Laubli from the High Country Rail Trail in Victoria, where volunteers repaired some of their trestle bridges. Very helpful! Hope we can do the same with some of ours.


A visit to Stone and Wood

Some of us did a group ride to celebrate the new bike racks in Byron Bay – designed by Dave and Luke from Larc Connections, sponsored by Stone and Wood Brewery. This was followed by a ride out to Stone and Wood who have agreed to fund raise for us during the month of September.


Liaising and supporting the committee from Monaro

Congratulations to the Monaro Rail Trail crew who have just completed their own crowd funding campaign raising over $12,000 in half the time allocated! Fabulous support!  Great seeing these initiatives coming from future rail trails in NSW.

 


What a great idea for the rail trail! We could get local businesses, schools, families, landcare groups, mens sheds etc to adopt a small section of the trail and take care of it! A fantastic way for people to “own” the trail.
This happens on highways in America.

 

 

 

 

If everyone can make a small donation to help keep our organisation running, it would be a great help. We spend money monthly on maintaining the website, mail chimp, facebook, markets, printing, postage and merchandise. We use our own money for travel and petrol and many other incidentals.

We want to try and not eat into the crowd funding money which has been earmarked for the business case.