El Zorro was an Australian railway operator hauling freight and infrastructure trains in Victoria and

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

History

El Zorro was founded in 1999 by Ray Evans who had a taste for things Spanish, El Zorro being Spanish for ''the fox''. At the time of liquidation, the company had two shareholders: director Ray Evans, and ex-director Lisa Trezise. Geoff Tighe, a co-founder and past shareholder and director, was formerly chief executive of Great Northern Rail Services, a now defunct operator which provided locomotives and crews to other operators in Victoria until November 2002.The Fox Gets on Track
Business Review Australia In 2004, the company won a contract from QR National subsidiary Interail, to provide crews for its

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

rail service on the southern leg from Junee to Melbourne. The company was an accredited rail operator in Victoria and

operating freight and infrastructure trains. In December 2006, El Zorro commenced operating a contract for P&O Trans Australia to operate container trains between

's Swanson Dock and an

intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, or a freight container, (or simply "container") is a large metal crate designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode ...

terminal at Somerton. In August 2007, El Zorro was awarded a contract by AWB to operate two grain trains, one standard gauge, one broad gauge in Victoria and New South Wales. In December 2007, when

Pacific National Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail Corporation, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock, jointly owned by the Government of Australia, Federal, Governm ...

announced that it was scaling back its Victorian operations, El Zorro who were the only other grain operator, admitted that the logistics of moving an entire Victorian wheat harvest were beyond its capabilities at the time, its fleet comprising only two T class locomotives and 80 wagons. The first El Zorro grain train was operated on the standard gauge on 11 December 2007, and the first broad gauge grain train on 18 January 2008. In April 2008, El Zorro took over the Westvic Container Handling

Warrnambool Warrnambool (; Eastern Maar, Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the Census in Australia#2021, 2021 census, Warrnambool had a populati ...

container service from

before it returned to Pacific National in October 2008. Problems El Zorro faced in running the service included a lack of broad gauge locomotives and container wagons, the removal of crossing loops on the line by infrastructure manager

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates Regional rail, regional passenger rail and Intercity bus service, coach services in the Australian state of Victoria (state), Victoria. It provides passenger train services on five Commuter rail, ...

, which resulted in late running and delays, and the inability to carry high cube containers though the Geelong tunnel due to a lack of low platform wagons. In August 2008, AWB awarded El Zorro a new five-year contract to operate four trains moving grain throughout Victoria and New South Wales. To operate these 84 WGBY standard gauge wagons were purchased by AWB Limited from China for this work and delivered in 2009. These were followed by 90 WGSY wagons in 2010 for both standard and broad gauge use. In September 2008, miner

Iluka Resources Iluka Resources is an Australian resources company, specialising in mineral sands exploration, project development, operations and marketing. Iluka is the largest producer of zircon and titanium dioxidederived rutile and synthetic rutile global ...

awarded El Zorro a contract to haul containerised mineral sands from Portland to

. Trains would run three times a week carrying 40 containers making up a load of 1,000 tonnes. In October 2008, the company operated a trial service to the Gippsland Intermodal Freight Terminal outside Morwell, in what was the first train to use the facility in almost three years. El Zorro was said to be in talks with local companies who wanted to utilise rail freight. In December 2008, El Zorro started supplying rolling stock to Regional Rail Logistics, a New South Wales based freight operator running services from the

Riverina The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...

region to

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Financial difficulties

In May 2013, Consolidated Rail Leasing filed a petition in the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian States and territories of Australia, State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil law (common law), civil matters, and hears ...

to wind up El Zorro. El Zorro director Ray Evans said cash flow problems had been caused by agricultural products distributor

Cargill Cargill, Incorporated is an American multinational food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865 by William Wallace Cargill, it is the largest privately held c ...

refusing to pay his company for work carried out during the previous four weeks. Evans said that although El Zorro owed Cargill $2 million as a long-term debt, there was a repayment plan in place, which was not being fulfilled. Due to this Cargill had recently stopped all payments to the rail operator. Michael Vines president of the Victorian Goldfields Railway, which leased a locomotive to El Zorro through the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre, said in a newsletter that his organisation had not been paid for nine months for the use of the locomotive. At the same time, the NSW branch of the Rail Tram and Bus Union said it was talking to legal representatives over El Zorro's failure to pay full superannuation entitlements to its members since February 2013. The Seymour Railway Heritage Centre was reportedly owed more than $1 million in relation to the hiring of the centre's rolling stock to the company. The company ceased trading on 4 June 2013. The

Australian Securities & Investments Commission The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is an independent commission of the Australian Government tasked as the national corporate regulator. ASIC's role is to regulate company and financial services and enforce laws to pro ...

listed El Zorro Transport Pty Ltd as being under external administration following the submission of documents on 14 June. The company subsequently entered liquidation with the liquidators, HoskingHurst, appointed by the Supreme Court of NSW.

Services

Services formerly operated by El Zorro included: *Containerised mineral sands between Portland and

*Grain trains for AWB in Victoria and New South Wales *Infrastructure trains for

Fleet

Locomotives accredited to be operated by El Zorro on hire from others as at December 2012 included those owned by Australian Locolease, AWB, CFCLA, Consolidated Rail Leasing, Genesee & Wyoming, Greentrains, Junee Railway Workshop and

SCT Logistics SCT Logistics is an Australian interstate transport company operating rail and road haulage, with facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Parkes, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. History SCT Logistics was founded in 1974 as Specialised Container T ...

as well as various preservation organisations including 707 Operations, Diesel Electric Rail Motor Preservation Association of Victoria, Seymour Railway Heritage Centre, South Gippsland Railway, Steamrail Victoria and Victorian Goldfields Railway. They also included locomotives owned by RLG, a related entity of El Zorro: S302, T386, TL152, TL154, TL155 and Y145.Network Access - Information Pack
V/Line T386 was the first locomotive to receive any El Zorro branding, receiving a ''Z'' painted on the end of each hood. In May 2008, Y145 was the first locomotive to be painted into El Zorro's grey, orange and yellow livery. In January 2009, South Gippsland Railway's T342 was painted in El Zorro livery after being hired on a long lease. In August 2009, S302 was also repainted in to the corporate livery. El Zorro made approaches to acquire unwanted rolling stock from competitor

, but were told that rolling stock would be scrapped or exported. Wagons included container flats, open wagons, rail transporters, and ballast hoppers. Grain hoppers, sleeper discharge wagons, container flats, and ballast hoppers were also leased by the company.

References

External links

Archived copy of El Zorro website
{{FormerVictorianRailCompanies Defunct railway companies of Australia Railway companies established in 1999 Railway companies disestablished in 2013 1999 establishments in Australia 2013 disestablishments in Australia