Margaret Strelow wants to see long term jobs return to Rockhampton Railyards
A former storeman at the Rockhampton Railyards for more than 30 years says he would like to see life being breathed back into the site with work and people learning trades.
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4 min read
July 24, 2024 - 3:39PM
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Rockhampton
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A former storeman at the Rockhampton Railyards for more than 30 years says he would like to see life breathed back into the site with work and people learning trades.
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Robert Moore started working at the Depot Hill site as a tradesman assistant in 1980.
While Mr Moore was working at the railyards, he said 60 to 70 apprentices would come through a year in the 1980s and 1990s.
“We did all the coal wagons,” he said.
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Robert Moore outside the Rockhampton Railyards on Wednesday. Picture: Aden Stokes
“(We) kept the coal wagon fleet going – refurbished them, did the wheels, stuff like that.
“A lot of people worked here and now nothing. It’s all gone.”
Mr Moore left his job as a storeman at the Rockhampton Railyards after 36 years.
He said he left about 18 months to two years before Aurizon closed the site in 2018, putting 181 employees out of a job in Rockhampton and another 126 workers at Gladstone, Stanwell and Bluff depots.
“It’s just sitting here,” he said.
“Millions of dollars worth of sheds doing nothing.
“We could employ people.
“We can get some young kids up we can teach them trades.
“We need boilermakers, we need electricians, we need fitters.”
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Robert Moore and independent candidate Margaret Strelow outside the Rockhampton Railyards on Wednesday. Picture: Aden Stokes
The Queensland Government, under then Premier Anna Bligh, sold off public assets in 2010, including the Rockhampton railway workshops.
Aurizon, formerly QR National, took over the site and later closed it down in 2018.
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The Queensland Government bought back the site in April 2022 for $21 million.
CQ Fibreglass Direct, Queensland Rail and Occupational Skills Centre Australia have been confirmed as tenants for the site, with further tenancies to be secured through a staged activation approach.
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In June, the Queensland Government’s 2024-25 Budget included $23.7 million over the next four years for high priority remediation works and capital upgrades to continue the transformation of the old railyards into a commercial hub with community and recreational spaces.
Planning for the rejuvenation of the site’s two precincts, the Heritage Precinct and Industrial Precinct, had commenced, with the funding to cover the finalisation of the Heritage Precinct planning.
Draft plans for the Heritage Precinct include a Heritage Centre with space for rail heritage exhibits, displays and artefacts, a family-centric play area, and multi-use hospitality and events spaces.
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Independent candidate Margaret Strelow said on Wednesday that while the historic Rockhampton Roundhouse needed to be restored, “it doesn’t address what they say was going to happen here”.
“We were promised there would be boilermakers, there would be fitters and turners, that this site would once again be a part of the main manufacturing for trains in Queensland,” she said.
“What we have seen is very expensive new facilities built just outside Maryborough, new facilities in the Gold Coast.
Independent candidate Margaret Strelow outside the Rockhampton Railyards on Wednesday. Picture: Aden Stokes
“We have been left high and dry.
“Brittany Lauga in 2020 said ‘fitters and turners and permanent long jobs here once again a part of the rail manufacturing system in Queensland’.
“Nothing has come of it. We have been sold out once again.”
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Ms Strelow said over the past two years the names of businesses and agencies who were supposed to already be on site had been published, “but the businesses don’t even mention the railway location on their own websites and they certainly don’t have an active presence at the workshops”.
She said she had a solution she was putting on the table.
“I believe these great sheds should be used as a free incentive for people to come and start up businesses and return manufacturing to Rockhampton,” she said.
“We have a manufacturing hub at the university, it needs to be either relocated or partnered with this site and these sheds and this facility and the great skills of people who worked in the railway and know how to train tradespeople need to come to play and we need to grow new manufacturing.
“We have a significant industrial site here.
“It needs to be used for industry.
“Lets put these sheds to some other use and lets really make sure the government know we are watching them.”
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Keppel MP Brittany Lauga said the railyards have been an important part of Rockhampton for more than 100 years.
“We committed to purchasing and restoring the railyards and we are doing just that,” she said.
“The 2024/25 Budget delivers $23.7 million in funding for this important project.
“The budget includes work on both the Heritage Precinct and Industrial Precincts.
“This funding will assure the finalisation of the heritage precinct planning and remediation work and capital upgrades in the industrial precinct.”
Ms Keppel said three new tenants had signed on to the site, including CQ Fibreglass, a leading local fibreglass manufacturer, and Queensland Rail.
“This is manufacturing, this is trains, this is part of restoring the rail sector in Queensland,” she said.
“To be clear – this will support hundreds of local jobs directly and indirectly.
“And I look forward to seeing even more jobs locally off the back of the Queensland Train Manufacturing Program.”
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Manufacturing Minister Glenn Butcher said it was “disappointing Ms Strelow would talk down this crucial project to restore the railyards as a manufacturing hub for trains in Queensland and support employment in the region”.
“We said we’d buy the railyards – we did,” he said.
“We said we’d refurbish the railyards – and we are with $23.7 million funding works and upgrades right now.
“My department is working with TMR to see this facility transformed into a manufacturing precinct that will underpin local manufacturing and supply into the Queensland rail manufacturing industry.
Mr Butcher said it was a project that would support hundreds of jobs for regional Queensland directly and indirectly.
“If the LNP had it their way, there would be no rail supply chain jobs on this site – or in Queensland,” he said.
“Train manufacturing would be sent overseas and supplier opportunities would be sent overseas under the LNP.
“There’s only one party for jobs and opportunity in Central Queensland and that’s the Labor Party.”
