The Karara railway is a railway line in the Mid West region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, linking the Karara iron ore mine with the

Arc Infrastructure Arc Infrastructure (previously known as Brookfield Rail and WestNet Rail) is a transport infrastructure owner and access provider in Western Australia with a long-term lease on the network from the Government of Western Australia. It operates a ...

network near Morawa. The railway is leased by Karara Mining Limited and trains are operated by Aurizon between the mine and Geraldton port.

Route

The Karara railway is managed by Karara Mining Limited, a joint venture between Gindalbie Metals and

Ansteel Group Anshan Iron and Steel Group Corporation (Ansteel Group in short; less popularly Angang Group) is a Chinese state-owned steel maker. The corporation was under the supervision of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the S ...

. Karara Mining Limited holds a 49-year lease on the rail corridor from the Public Transport Authority, which began in August 2012. It branches off the Perenjori– Mullewa railway line north of Morawa at Tilley Junction. It travels approximately in an easterly direction from there. The first is roughly parallel to the disused Koolanooka branch.

Construction

The ''Railway (Tilley to Karara) Bill 2010'' was introduced to the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliament consists of a lower house, the Legislative Ass ...

in May 2010 and passed in July 2010. In August 2010, Karara Mining Limited awarded Macmahon Holdings the $86 million contract to build the Karara railway, including earthworks and tracklaying. The track was supplied by Karara Mining Limited owner Ansteel. Construction began in December 2010. To maintain compatibility with the Arc Infrastructure network, the Karara railway was constructed with narrow gauge tracks, although

dual gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...

sleepers were used to allow for easy conversion to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

in the future, as the future

Oakajee Port Oakajee Port is a proposed deep water port to be built in the Mid West region of Western Australia, north of Geraldton, to service the region's growing iron ore industry. History Between 1879 and 1957, Oakagee was a siding and locality on th ...

was planned to have standard gauge access. Associated with the Karara railway construction was an upgrade of the of rail between Geraldton and Morawa. Karara Mining Limited signed a $300 million contract with

Brookfield Rail Arc Infrastructure (previously known as Brookfield Rail and WestNet Rail) is a transport infrastructure owner and access provider in Western Australia with a long-term lease on the network from the Government of Western Australia. It operates a ...

(since renamed

), the lessee of Western Australia's public rail freight network, to upgrade the Geraldton to Morawa railway.

Operations

In 2011, QR National (since renamed Aurizon) was awarded a 10-year contract for operating all trains to and from the Karara mine. The contract was worth approximately $900 million and involved QR National expanding its Narngulu maintenance yard. Train frequencies were four trains per day, each with 100 wagons, and up to per annum was expected to be hauled. The first train load of iron ore was in August 2012.

Route

Construction

Operations

Notes

References

Further reading