Bowen Rail Company has contracted the Hillery Group to construct a new rail yard at the Carmichael coal mine and rail project in Queensland, Australia.

The A$15 million ($11 million) rail yard will be an important part of the business’ long term operating plan but is not required for the company to commence rail operations later this year, Bowen Rail said.

Bowen Rail Company CEO, Trista Brohier, said partnering with Hillery was another example of how Bowen Rail was delivering on its promises of jobs and work packages for the Whitsunday region.

“We’re pleased that we can now share with the Bowen community how our commitments on jobs and contracts for the Whitsundays are coming to life,” Brohier said. “Partnering with Hillery is a perfect example of this and we couldn’t have picked a better local company to do the job considering their strong technical expertise and knowledge of the region.”

Hillery Group is a family-owned business in Bowen, Queensland, stablished over 30 years ago with, currently, more than 100 employees. Hillery Group specialises in civil construction and plant hire and is an operator of four local quarries, supplying these materials across regional Queensland.

CEO of Hillery Group, Luke Hillery, said the project was a big win for his business and the community.

“We’re really proud to have been given the opportunity to deliver this critical piece of infrastructure for Bowen Rail,” Hillery said. “We see the value that this business will bring to our region for the long term, and it’s great to be one of the first cabs off the rank to win a big contract of this nature. It’s not often we see contracts to build rail yards in Bowen, so we were excited at the opportunity to partner with the Bowen Rail team.”

Brohier said clearing and earthworks are now well progressed in the rail yard’s delivery, with other exciting announcements for Bowen Rail expected shortly.

“We launched the Bowen Rail company in August last year, and we have been enthusiastically working behind the scenes since then to establish our business for operations,” she said.

“We’ve been busy setting up our systems, team and infrastructure, and we’re looking forward to sharing our ongoing progress with our fellow community members as we work towards running trains with our first customer’s coal product from the Carmichael mine later this year. Watch this space!”