Local Queensland communities have celebrated the rail freight company’s major milestones
The Bowen Rail Company (BRC) has celebrated two new milestones, having reached a special moment in its freight rail performance while also creating 180 local jobs.
Local business and community leaders gathered at the Grand View Hotel in Bowen to mark the first 10 million tonnes of high-quality Queensland coal BRC being safely transported to its customer Bravus Mining and Resources’ Carmichael mine at the North Queensland Export Terminal.
BRC general manager Brendan Lane told the crowd the achievement is testament to the dedication and hard work of all who had supported the business since it started in Bowen in 2020.
“In just three years, we’ve gone from a team of 10 people working on William Street to a thriving group of about 180 employees working across our rail operations, network control, health and safety, maintenance, environment and professional functions,” he says.
Lane says BRC has focused on creating a culture that has a positive local impact and reinforces the business’ values of accountability, safety, people, integrity, respect and excellence (ASPIRE).
“Every single person in our organisation – from the seasoned hands who relocated from across the country to join our business right through to the locals we have brought into the rail industry through our train driver traineeship program – has helped shape or drive our ASPIRE values,” he says.
“That’s also seen our people and their families become a part of this town. Some are long-standing locals and others have moved here from as far away as Western Australia and New South Wales.
“All of them are contributing to the sense of community that makes the Whitsundays such a wonderful place to live and work in.
“We’re deeply grateful for the incredible support we’ve received as we’ve grown from a start-up to a thriving rail operator.
“While this celebration is about one record, the good news for Bowen is this is only the latest in many to come for our business.”
BRC is a rail business and Australia’s first greenfield railway in more than a decade, being one of the first rail services operators in Queensland to be accredited under the Office of National Rail Safety Regulator regime for the provision of bulk coal services.