MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE RAIL TRAIL COMMITTEE

This is our 5th Christmas and we are still hanging in there and moving forward each year. Who would have thought this would be a life time project when we committed to working with NRRT! We love it and hope in the not too distant future, we will become “Friends of the Rail Trail.”

We have another new banner courtesy of Rail Trails Australia – Thank you!

Having 2 banners allows us to have separate kits for markets at either end of the corridor.

Unfortunately we were not successful with our grant submission to SCCU. They had lots of other worthwhile projects to support. Maybe next time!

Tweed Section Update

The Tweed team are excited to say that the State Government has agreed they will have a draft contract funding agreement by February. This is great news and hopefully means that they will be able to access this funding. Up until now, they have been using the Federal Government funding.

The tender process is expected to be completed by March.

Lismore/Casino Update

The first draft of the economic assessment for the remaining section (Crabbes Creek to Casino) of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail,  reveals strong economic outcomes will be provided by the government’s investment. The business case for the Tweed section, Murwillumbah to Crabbes Creek, showed similar strong returns.

Extending the Trail from Tweed (Crabbes Creek) to Casino, at a cost of approximately $72 million, will have significant benefits for the Region and NSW. The key economic outcomes are identified as:

• During the construction phase, the $72 million project will generate 134 cumulative direct local jobs and support $53 million in additional spending in the community and a further 273 indirect jobs;
• The NRRT Crabbes Creek to Casino section is conservatively forecast to attract over 53,600 persons per annum initially, including 44,200 visitors to the Northern Rivers region. The direct spending associated with these visitors is approximately $3.8 million per year, which will support additional direct employment opportunities across the region; and
• Over the next 30 years, this section will deliver a net present value of $27.4 million, with almost $1.40 in benefits to the community created for every dollar spent in construction and maintenance of the facility.The NRRT will assist in building NSW’s capacity to provide key tourism infrastructure to attract new and emerging markets and sustainably assist in growing the Northern Rivers economy, increase employment opportunities and improve the socio- economic wellbeing and physical environment of the Northern Rivers community. The Casino to Eltham stage of the Trail, some 46kms is identified as the next stage for construction. Commencing in Casino the Rail Trail will traverse through the picturesque northern region countryside including Lismore and the villages of Bexhill and Eltham. A key outcome will be attracting visitors from the coast to the hinterland through the provision of a truly immersive nature-based tourism product.
  Preparation of the economic analysis for this next stage is underway.

Leycester Creek Bridge in Lismore

The Bridge over Leycester Creek is in a pretty bad way and will need some major work doing soon if we are to save it! It is heritage listed so even more reason to try and get some funding to save it. Our petition to help save the bridge is well underway. Please make contact at enquiries@northernriversrailtrail.org.au  if you would like to collect some signatures for us.

Some of our market team. Jenny, Peter and Marie with a painting done by Pat Bakerich, depicting how she sees our future rail trail. 

Cycling definitely a growing industry!

A pre Christmas party ride by the Northern Rivers Bushwalking Club (cycling contingent) – all looking forward to the day the Tweed Rail Trail opens in 2020. 
Cycling and walking becoming more popular world wide as people want to be more  connected to nature and embrace good health.

If everyone can make a small donation to help keep our organisation running, it would be a great help. We spend money monthly on maintaining the website, mail chimp, facebook, markets, printing, postage and merchandise. We use our own money for travel and petrol and many other incidentals.

We want to try and not eat into the crowd funding money which has been earmarked for the business case.