2017 Flood review event

On 28 March 2017, tropical cyclone Debbie caused widespread damage to Aurizon Network’s infrastructure in Central Queensland. Where a review event occurs, Aurizon Network may propose to vary reference tariffs under clause 5 of schedule F of the 2016 access undertaking.

Aurizon Network proposed to recover costs arising from cyclone Debbie in tariffs to apply on an interim basis between 1 January 2018 and 30 June 2018. These interim tariffs were also reflected in a draft amending access undertaking (DAAU) to extend the termination date of the 2016 undertaking to 30 June 2018, which was approved by us on 9 November 2017. When a replacement undertaking (UT5) is approved there will be a final reconciliation and true-up so that only approved costs are recovered.

Aurizon Network’s review event submission can be downloaded below.

Aurizon Network’s Goonyella system suffered flood damage in February 2016.

On 31 October 2016, Aurizon Network sought our approval to recover $1.98 million (pre-escalation) of incremental maintenance costs resulting from the flood event, through a variation to the 2017–18 Goonyella reference tariffs.

After receiving no submissions from stakeholders, on 24 May 2017, we made a decision to approve Aurizon Network’s application.

Our letter to Aurizon Network and decision, and our consultant’s (B&H) report are available below.

The Moura system withstood flood damage as a result of Cyclone Marcia in February 2015.

Aurizon Network sought a variation to its reference tariffs to recover the incremental maintenance costs of $4.05 million (pre-escalation), resulting from the 2015 flood event.

On 8 December 2016, we made a final decision to approve Aurizon Network’s application. We made this decision under the transitional provisions of the 2016 access undertaking (UT4).

Our final decision, our consultant’s (Jacobs) supplementary report, and stakeholders’ comments on our October 2016 draft decision are available below.