Local communities and business in Queensland, NSW and Victoria can apply for a share in $44 million to develop a pitch to government for new or better links to the Inland Rail line.
As the Inland Rail is built, providing a quicker freight link to a choice of export ports, the Commonwealth will fund construction of new, or upgraded connections for local towns and industry.
Infrastructure Minister Michael McCormack has announced today the government will pay for private analysts to help parites make their pitch for a slice of the funding pie.
The offer is open to local governments, chambers of commerce, primary producer co-operatives, community groups and private businesses that want to tap into the heavy gauge freight that will link Brisbane and Melbourne ports for the first time.
Across the eastern seaboard there are commercial opportunities to upgrade or extend road freight connections to the Inland Rail.
An array of important industrial hubs would benefit from better roads links to their export connections - such as grain silos, container terminals, livestock facilities, and so on.
The Inland Rail provides the same upgrade potential to existing up-country rail lines linking production hubs and growing regions to port.
The federal Infrastructure Department will run workshops in late September on the funding applications, which are available under the Inland Rail Productivity Enhancement Program and the Inland Rail Country Lines Improvement Program.
"The freight and logistics sector is incredibly important to a vast nation like ours," said Infrastructure Minister Michael McCormack.
"It's vitally important we invest in infrastructure, such as Inland Rail, to reduce costs and meet the growing freight task," Mr McCormack said.
For more information visit the Department's website.
