‘Not backing down’: Narrabri bid to reroute inland rail gathers steam

A revolt by a majority of Narrabri shire councillors has bolstered a community push to reroute the inland rail through the region, shining light on the project's links with Santos and the Morrison government's "gas-led recovery".

At an extraordinary council meeting on 15 February, a motion was carried that the general manager provide comprehensive documents and timelines about the status of the inland rail project before the council's ordinary meeting on 22 March. This includes the proposed route of the rail corridor through Narrabri, and any correspondence with government.

The newly elected councillors John Clements, Rohan Boehm and Robert Browning moved the motion after the general manager, Stewart Todd, unilaterally sent a statement in support of the inland rail project to the NSW planning department without consulting other councillors in July 2021. This was followed by a similar public statement from the mayor, Ron Campbell, overturning council's previous environmental concerns about the proposed route.

The episode was the latest in a bruising debate in the Narrabri community about the Australian Rail Track Corporation's (ARTC's) 1,700km freight project and community concerns that decision-makers had gotten the extent of the flood risk wrong.

The newly elected councillors claimed to have a mandate to divert the proposed rail corridor further west to avoid the need for downstream infrastructure that may increase flooding of the Namoi River; while the re-elected Campbell told Guardian Australia that he was up for compromise that would bring broad community benefits.

Meanwhile, Todd had been stood down on special leave pending a performance assessment; and new councillors were concerned that council's flood plain risk management committee's recommendations had been swept aside.

Boehm said during the meeting that "the community is not fully aware, and has not been fully engaged".