NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie Section update – March 2026
As we move through 2026, we’re progressing environmental approvals on the NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie section.
March 31, 2026
We are progressing environmental approvals and design refinement investigations for the NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie section.
We are responding to submissions from the public consultation in mid-2025 and providing additional information to the Queensland Coordinator-General for the Environmental Impact Statement.
We’ve hosted information sessions and attended local agricultural shows to share information with our communities as we continue site surveys and investigate options to improve safety, reduce impacts and refine our designs.
Inland Rail is working with the Queensland Coordinator-General (Coordinator-General) to finalise the NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and its revised reference design, which was open for public consultation in mid-2025.
We are providing further supporting information to the Coordinator-General and responding to submissions received in 2025.
The Coordinator-General assesses the revised draft EIS, the revised reference design and supplementary material and issues a report evaluating the final EIS.
The NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie EIS will be assessed by the Queensland and Australian Governments.
Image: Yelarbon, Qld.
We’re investigating design refinements
We are currently investigating the feasibility of design refinements to the revised reference design at several locations along the NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie section including at Yelarbon, Pampas, Brookstead, Pittsworth and key road-rail interfaces.
These investigations are possible as we have updated our design standards since the revised reference design was completed in 2023. Inland Rail’s design standards set clear specifications to ensure safe and consistent design across Inland Rail. The investigations also provide an opportunity for Inland Rail to further improve the design in response to community feedback.
The potential design refinements aim to reduce the amount of land required for the project, improve safety at road-rail interfaces and minimise community impacts including noise, vibration, earthworks, truck movements and visual amenity.
Learn more about our design investigations
Image: Brookstead, Qld.
Out and about
Our stakeholder engagement team and project specialists have hosted a series of community information sessions in Pittsworth, Brookstead and Yelarbon to support the design investigations.
Topics of interest have included ongoing work to finalise our environmental approvals, design refinement investigations and recent field surveys.
We heard feedback on local issues including property access, flooding and noise impacts, which will be considered as we continue the design refinement investigations.
We’ll report back to the community on the feasibility of potential design refinements once these investigations are complete.
The Inner Darling Downs Community Consultative Committee (CCC) was held on Thursday 19 February in Brookstead, and the Southern Darling Downs CCC was held on Monday 23 February in Yelarbon. You can read the meeting minutes and the Chair’s Summary on the IDD and SDD CCC pages.
What’s happening in the field?
Site surveys and investigations continue at various locations along the NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie section.
In March, our contractors completed a series of ecological and soil surveys as part of the design refinement investigations and to collect further data to finalise the section’s Environmental Impact Statement.
To keep up to date with upcoming site investigations, please visit the works notifications page on the Inland Rail website.
We’d like to thank all landowners for their continued support and collaboration while we continue these important investigations.
Contact our team
If you would like to contact Inland Rail’s NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie team, you can either call, send an email or visit one of our offices.
| Phone | 1800 732 761 during business hours or leave a message and we'll get back to you. |
| inlandrailqld@inlandrail.com.au | |
| Inland Rail Pty Ltd, PO Box 3093, Toowoomba, QLD 4350 | |
| Visit us at these locations: | |
| Toowoomba | 143-145 Margaret Street, Monday to Friday, 8.30am-4.30pm |
| Goondiwindi | 28 Marshall Street, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 10am-2pm |
Or, fill out the form below and we will get back to you.
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The NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie section of Inland Rail will connect one of Australia’s most productive farming regions to markets across the country.
Inland Rail is a 1,600km fast freight rail line, now under construction, that will link Melbourne and Brisbane via regional Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The route has been divided into 12 sections, to allow for a staged delivery of the open-access fast freight rail line.
The NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie section involves delivering approximately 217km of track – 149km of new track and 68km of upgraded track – which runs from 18km southeast of Goondiwindi to Gowrie Junction, northwest of Toowoomba in Queensland.
This section of Inland Rail will connect to the North Star to NSW/Qld Border section, enabling existing narrow-gauge track in Queensland to connect with standard gauge track in New South Wales. Learn more about dual-gauge track for the NSW/Qld Border to Gowrie section.
