Our cost effective and efficient transport system is based on the accepted industry-wide principle that there is some sharing of cost between miller and grower.
We offer innovative systems to assist in the administration and management of harvesting and transport, including centralized traffic control, computerized mapping of farms from aerial photography, the use of satellite imagery to predict cane yield, GPS tracking of harvesters and locomotives, the provision of information to growers using SMS messaging, a phone-in communications centre, and an interactive web site.
We mainly use rail to transport cane to our mills; however, road transport is also used in areas where access to the rail line is limited.
The Mackay rail network (850km) stretches from Wagoora (70km north of Mackay) to Munbura (23km south of Mackay) and Finch Hatton (76km west). The lines are 610mm gauge wide.
In Mackay, we operate 34 cane haulage locomotives with a fleet of 7,000 cane bins, comprising 5-, 6- and 15-ton bins. The brake vans are radio-controlled by the driver. The largest are 40-ton bogie locomotives and the smallest are 18-ton locomotives. The largest locomotives can haul up to 1,000 tons of cane (a payload of 180 6-ton bins). These trains are about 800 m long. There are 500 rail and road delivery sidings which are strategically located around the district to receive the cane. Some are built for roll-on roll-off trailers and others are built to handle the more modern tipper bins.