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Monorail timber transport scheme mooted
Posted Tue Jun 3, 2008 8:12am AEST
A plan that could revolutionise the transport of timber on the Monaro has been unveiled at Bombala.
American technology company International Innovations has presented the Bombala Shire Council with the plan for a monorail linking the southern Monaro's softwood plantations, a proposed new timber mill at Bombala and the far south coast chip mill near Eden.
Company spokesman Peter Davies says the system is carbon efficient and could be built for $1 million a kilometre - a figure well under the cost of constructing a major road.
He says the reaction from regional authorities has been encouraging.
"It is the only transport system that is actually capable of being run on renewable power all the way through the line so in the future carbon-restrained economy that we are facing, it has enormous application and implications for a region," he said.
"But just because we recognise that, it usually takes some time before that filters out but that hasn't been the case here.
"We are getting a very strong reaction."
The Bombala Shire Council will also look at the futuristic transport system linking the Monaro softwood plantations with a far south coast processing plant.
Bombala Shire Mayor Bob Stewart says with the new softwood mill opening in 2010, the area is poised for major expansion.
He says the idea has plenty going for it.
"If you can take a freight monorail from one point down to say from us to the export job from Eden, if Eden was going strong," he said.
"There are a lot of figures to crunch, a lot of hurdles to get over, but a very, very interesting concept to take the things off the road ... road infrastructure with freight and probably with the fuel, too."
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