Works and planning for Phase 1: Narrabri North to North Star
Phase 1 includes upgrading 176km of track along the existing rail corridor.
Trans4m Rail, a joint venture between contractors John Holland and SEE Civil, was the principal contractor for Phase 1 works.
Key features of Phase 1 project include:
- seven new bridges to accommodate double-stacked trains
- five new crossing loops with associated maintenance sidings
- improved drainage including 4776 new culverts installed under railway and roads
- upgraded several road connections between the Newell Highway and level crossings between Narrabri and Moree
- 57 level crossings upgraded to improve safety with 10 passive level crossings upgraded to active with bells, lights and boom gates
- relocated power and telecommunications utilities
- Enhanced telecommunications in four alignment communities.
On 27 October 2023 the section between Camurra and North Star was commissioned, marking the end of major construction on the project. Normal train operations have resumed along the entire alignment.
Watch a fly-through of the project
Get a birds-eye view of the Narrabri to North Star project. This video shows the alignment as of November 2020. The fly-through video is for illustration purposes and for discussion and community consultation.
Five-clawed Worm skink
During Inland Rail’s construction, we have identified habitats of the threatened Five-clawed Worm skink (Anomalopus mackayi) species along sections of the alignment between Narrabri and North Star.
Monitoring the skink
The Narrabri to North Star project’s conditions of approval require us to monitor the Five-clawed Worm skink in the project area for up to four years post project completion. We have set up 15 monitoring sites along the alignment to help us understand the prevalence of the species in the region.
ARTC aims, where practicable and possible to place the monitoring stations on ARTC owned land, however there may be some locations where the sites are required to be placed outside the corridor boundary. The stations comprise of one rubber and one carpet tile roughly one meter squared in surface area.
More about the Five-clawed Worm skink
This skink is a burrowing lizard with a worm-like body that can grow up to 270mm long. It tends to be dark brown with a green-yellow underside and features short limbs with three fingers and two toes.
It generally inhabits grassy white box woodlands, river red gum, Coolibah,and Bimble box woodland on moist, deep cracking clay soils and surfaces under fallen timber and leaf litter.
To learn more about the threatened Five-clawed Worm skink, visit the NSW Government’s Office of Environment and Heritage dedicated website page.
Protecting the Five-clawed Worm skink
This document provides information about the Five-clawed Worm skink (Anomalopus mackayi) species along sections of the alignment between Narrabri and North Star.
Construction photos
Check out our gallery of photos taken of Narrabri to North Star Phase 1 construction.
