Dubbil Barril Landslide Update

We’ve missed our usual wet winters this year, so it was with glee that we welcomed a downpour a few weeks back… The rain really does bring out the best in the rainforest (the clue is in the name!) and we were grateful for its arrival.

The rain, however, doesn’t come without hurdles for our railway, so it was on the following morning’s safety run of the track that our track maintenance crew met with a medium-sized landslide when they arrived at the Dubbil Barril station!

Trees and saplings lay over the track and across the station platform at Dubbil Barril Station.

Luckily, damage to the rail infrastructure was relatively minor, but the clean-up operation has been a huge team effort. From our track and property maintenance teams were joined by our locomotive crew, who spent the next 10 days in fairly miserable conditions, cutting up and removing trees, and then removing the rock and soil from the track.

A series of images showing the process of cutting back the trees to clear the railway track.

Meanwhile, our ticketing team were busy calling ahead for passengers whose journeys were impacted by the landslide and letting them know about the changes to their journey. Our onboard team quickly revised their onboard service and commentary, to make sure we were still providing a great experience, albeit cut a little short and missing one of our stations.

Last, but certainly not least, our Café teams did a brilliant job of catering to the altered time tables, and keeping everyone fed and watered.

Two images clearly showing the cleared trees, which leaves only the earth from the landslip laying across one of the railway tracks. Workers are present on the platform and a hirail multipurpose vehicle can be seen on the tracks in one image

A geotechnical specialist recently inspected the site and has provided advice on how best to keep our staff and passengers safe from further landslides in this area and we are now operating all journeys normally.

We thank all passengers for their patience and understanding whilst this work was completed.

Dubbil Barril Station from the King River, looking up the hill. The landslip has left a deep scar down the middle of the hill into the railway station.

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