The deal impacts the transportation of the bulk of the grain harvest in WA
Johnson Winter & Slattery (JWS) has advised on what it said is one of Australia’s largest and most complex rail transportation tasks.
The firm guided the country’s largest co-operative, Co-operative Bulk Handling Limited (CBH), with regard to its long-term rail haulage and maintenance agreement with rail freight operator Aurizon.
“This is one of the largest and most complex rail transportation tasks in Australia. It involves the haulage of the bulk of Western Australia’s grain harvest from about 70 different loading points to four unloading points spread across the state, using a mix of both CBH and Aurizon owned rolling stock,” lead partner Stuart Clague said.
CBH transports 14 million tonnes of grain on average annually, about 60% of which is presently hauled by rail. Under the agreement, 3 Aurizon-owned trains will complement the use of CBH’s current 10-train fleet to haul grain from regional rail receival sites to export terminals at Geraldton, Kwinana and Albany.
Depending on Aurizon’s ability to meet the relevant KPIs in the contract, there are two 2-year options to extend the six-year agreement. A three-month transition period between CBH’s current rail services provider Watco and Aurizon is set to commence this month, following Watco’s agreement to transfer the contract to Aurizon before the upcoming harvest.
“Given the importance of CBH’s rail operations to its business, we are delighted that CBH put its trust in us to advise on its rail services procurement process, including the long-term rail services agreement with Aurizon that was the end result,” Clague said.
The JWS team worked closely with CBH’s in-house legal team, which was helmed by head of legal Richard Codling and corporate lawyer Nadia Saba.
Clague co-led the JWS team alongside partner Bruce Adkins. They received assistance from consultant Darren Grondal, special counsel Rebecca Cifelli and associate Haerim Nam, with partner George Croft providing input on transitional arrangements.
CBH is owned and managed by over 3,000 grain growing businesses in WA.
