If it’s about domestic goods then there’s no need for a port connection. Actually in that case there’s no real need to bring it to Kagaru or Ebenezer either, just have the intermodal terminal at Gowrie, run trucks down the range from there, and save $15 billion. If they didn’t think it was worth bringing up to Gowrie, then it probably was never about domestic goods primarily.
Part of the challenge, assuming they would still want standard/dual gauge, is that if you wanted to connect to the existing standard gauge line through the back of Beaudesert is that the terrain gets less favourable as you go further south. The gentlest terrain would probably take you north past Crows Nest and up to Yarraman, which is quite a detour.
There once was a plan for a second range crossing called the Via Recta, which was a plan for a line through Cunningham’s Gap. The lines at one point almost met. From Warwick, there was a branch active as far as Maryvale. The line to Boonah (officially the Dugandan Line) and Mt Edwards branch reached as far as the line’s namesake, just south of Aratula. In the 1950s it would have been a windy route just like the current range crossing. By modern standards, it’d probably need a tunnel of similar length to what was proposed for Inland Rail, so also probably isn’t a good option cost-wise.
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I vaguely knew that there was a plan to get to Warwick without going via Toowoomba but never knew that detail, so that’s really cool to know.
I feel like Inland Rail just assumed that Gowrie to Grandchester was the best way down the range because a gazetted corridor exists, without really thinking about whether that is the right place (I acknowledge the Inland corridor is different to/refined from the 2003 gazetted one). Similarly to how it feels like they didn’t really consider other options to cross the Condamine floodplain.
If there were other options, I don’t think they’ve ever communicated that effectively.
I don’t think the original business case ever really considered an option to cross the range other than near Toowoomba because they assumed the line had to go there; presumably to ensure Toowoomba gets some of the economic benefit.
They did consider a number of route options between Goondiwindi and Gowrie, notably one via Karara and Leyburn, and one to realign and upgrade the existing Southern and Southwestern line.
These lost because going all the way east to Warwick and up to Toowoomba in an ‘L’ shape rather than a diagonal straight line towards Toowoomba exceeded the 24 hour Melbourne to Brisbane target time; and the Karara-Leyburn option was somewhat slower for about an equivalent capital cost to the Condamine flood plain option. The Southwestern line east of Lake Coolmunda (near Inglewood) becomes very windy - for Inland Rail’s purposes you might as well have built a whole new line from Lake Coolmunda up to Karara (about 40-50km) and then the line would have taken another ~60km up towards Felton and crossing the existing Millmerran branch somewhere around Southbook. It still would have crossed the eastern edge of the Condamine floodplain between Leyburn and Felton.
My understanding was the 24 hour travel time limit was paramount, then it became an exercise of devising the lowest cost route to achieve that. Inland Rail’s surveyors have always maintained embankments with culverts would suffice across the floodplain. I was never really convinced that was the case and suspected it would be a disaster for local farmers just waiting to happen.
But if the line is privately built to Gladstone only, none of that will matter now; I assume the line will cut a virtually straight north route from Goondiwindi up towards Miles and rebuild the Wandoan branch, punch through the range towards Cracow and Theodore, and connect to the existing Moura system which is currently in Aurizon’s hands.