Freight Australia

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Freight Australia was an Australian railway company created in 1999 when Victoria sold its V/Line Freight business to a private group called Freight Victoria. In March 2000 the company was renamed Freight Australia. The consortium behind it included RailAmerica, Fluor Daniel, Macquarie Bank and A Goninan & Co.

The new company took over 107 locomotives, more than 2,800 freight wagons, maintenance centres and a long lease on 4,756 km of Victorian broad‑gauge track. It began operating on 1 May 1999 with a green and yellow livery. In Victoria it hauled logs, paper, gravel, grain and other freight, and ran some standard‑gauge services to Wodonga and Dimboola. It also started expanding interstate as open access rules allowed.

Freight Australia soon took on work outside Victoria, hauling logs to Port Kembla and Wallerawang, grain from southern New South Wales to Melbourne and Port Kembla, and SCT Logistics trains from Melbourne to Perth.

In October 2003 Freight Australia was put up for sale. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission worried that Pacific National could create a rail and freight monopoly, along with other bidders such as Australian Railroad Group and Queensland Rail. In March 2004 RailAmerica agreed to sell to Pacific National; the ACCC did not oppose the deal in July 2004, and in August 2004 the Victorian Government approved transferring the Freight Australia infrastructure lease to Pacific National.

After the purchase, much of Freight Australia’s traffic moved to Pacific National or to road transport, and several contracts were lost to other operators. The fleet included 107 locomotives and more than 2,800 wagons. The G class engines were upgraded to 3,800 hp, and the X class were rebuilt into XR class. Freight Australia bought only one new locomotive, V544, in 2002, and added grain hoppers and converted vans for logs and containers. A CRT Group condition required transferring 10,000 hp of locomotive power to CRT; two G and two X locomotives were moved to CRT, with the rest included in the sale.