$1.6-million upgrade for Warracknabeal grain site
BY DEAN LAWSON
GrainCorp expects a $1.6-million project to develop its Warracknabeal grain-receival site to be finished before 2015 harvest.
Work has started on the project, which is designed to streamline the transport of produce in and out of Warracknabeal, and end grain-transport issues in the northern Wimmera centre.
GrainCorp, community representatives and guests attended a project launch at Warracknabeal yesterday.
The Warracknabeal site, which during a busy season can employ a staff of between 35 and 40, handles tens of thousands of tonnes of grain during productive regional harvests.
The development, while designed to take heavy grain-transport traffic from the township, will also open the potential for operations to match constant productivity improvements in broadacre farming technology.
Graingrowers from a radius of up to 80 kilometres from Warracknabeal transport wheat, barley and canola to the site, and truck traffic through the town has been an issue for many years.
GrainCorp Victorian regional manager Peter Johnston said the development, which had involved working with Yarriambiack Shire Council, would result in significant benefits to growers, the broader community and end-user customers.
He said a new northern truck entry and exit to be constructed at the site would reduce up to 80 percent of truck traffic entering Warracknabeal township.
He added Warracknabeal had been flagged as a ‘primary site’ for GrainCorp’s national Project Regeneration based on increasing rail-loading capacity.
“The reality is that the quicker we load trains and get grain to export, the greater the chance to get the best possible prices. This is the first update of the site and there will be subsequent updates,” he said.
“It is envisaged that we will be able to load the equivalent of 50 B-double trucks in one train in less than four hours out of Warracknabeal.”
Get the full story in the August 26, 2015 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
Short URL: http://www.theweeklyadvertiser.com.au/?p=28410
Posted on Aug 26 2015