Bowmans Rail was an Australian railway operator hauling freight in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

History

Bowmans Rail was founded as Bowmans Intermodal in 2003. It was a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between hay processor and exporter Balco, and logistics operator

Patrick Corporation Patrick Corporation is an Australian seaport operator with operations in Port of Brisbane, Brisbane, Fremantle Harbour, Fremantle, Port of Melbourne, Melbourne and Port Botany (seaport), Sydney. Formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exch ...

, each owning 50%. A railway terminal was built with a one-kilometre siding was built at Bowmans, South Australia. in September 2012

Toll Holdings The Toll Group is an Australian freight company that operates a logistics and global freight forwarding network spanning 150 countries, with over 20,000 customers. Toll has more than 16,000 workers across 500 sites. Toll Holdings Pty Limited ( ...

and AGT Foods Australia purchased Patrick's shareholding.Toll and AMG take shares in Bowmans Intermodal
''Fully Loaded'' 9 December 2012 The company adopted its current name in 2016, when it transported over 36,000 containers annually. The company operates freight services from Bowmans and

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. Port Pirie is the largest city and the main retail centre of the Mid North region of South Australia. The city has an ex ...

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

; conveying lead, hay, grain, pulses, seed, wine and pork bellies, as well as the importation of fish bait. Since 2016 the company has transported mineral sands for Tronox Mining between

Broken Hill Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...

and Port Adelaide, and in 2017 intended to commence an Adelaide to Leigh Creek intermodal service for the mining and petroleum industries. Bowmans Rail opened a new intermodal terminal near

Port Augusta Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...

in March 2018. The site was adjacent to the Bungala Solar Power Farm which was under construction and would receive solar panels and other construction materials by rail to reduce the number of trucks accessing the site via unsealed roads. The new terminal on the former Leigh Creek line was expected to handle 2,000 containers per annum. Locomotives and crew were initially provided by the

Australian Railroad Group Australian Railroad Group (ARG) was an Australian rail freight operator. It began operations in Western Australia on 17 December 2000 following its purchase of the Westrail freight business. It was purchased by QR National in June 2006. The mai ...

until

Rail First Asset Management Rail First Asset Management (RailFirst), formerly known as CFCL Australia (CFCLA, Chicago Freight Car Leasing), is an Australian rolling stock leasing company operating in the rail freight market. It leases assets to a number of private rail ope ...

took over in 2004.Bowmans Rail - Booming Business ''Catch Point'' issue 250 March 2019 pages 4-6

Locomotives

Bowmans Rail hire locomotives from Rail First, below is the list of hired locos: Formerly with Bowmans Rail Logos: EL63, GL111, CM3308, CM3309 CFCLA/Rail First Logos as of February 2024: EL53, EL54, EL55, EL63

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Website
Companies based in South Australia Freight railway companies of Australia Railway companies established in 2003 Toll Group 2003 establishments in Australia