WA’s $250m End-of-Nullarbor Freight Hub Moves Ahead
Civil works for a 62ha freight hub to service road trains arriving in Western Australia from the east across the Nullarbor Plain will be completed by December, Procon Developments Australia has revealed.
Procon managing director Leon Key said the AvonWest project, outside the Avon Valley town of Northam on the eastern edge of the WA Wheatbelt, would cut transport costs that inflate the price of goods for WA businesses and households.
“East-west road trains lose time and money when they’re forced to stop in Northam, decouple and send freight into Perth in multiple runs,” he said.
“AvonWest is the fix—a purpose-built turnaround hub that speeds up the reset, cuts wasted handling and shifts Perth deliveries to a leaner Northam-based distribution fleet.”
Procon corporate affairs and business development director Mia Davies said the steep descent into Perth meant that once road train drivers decoupled their trailers at Northam, they needed to make two or three trips to and from the WA capital.
“When AvonWest is built, drivers will be able to uncouple here, leaving a fleet of smaller trucks to deliver into Perth,” the Northam resident and onetime leader of the opposition in the WA Parliament said.
“This will cut the current three-day turnaround time by 48 hours.
“The prime movers will be freed to do what they’re supposed to do; freight heavy trailers across the Nullarbor.”
Davies said that once all 50 prospective tenants had built their own freight operations at AvonWest, a process that could take 10 years, about $250 million would have been invested at the site.
“I think we’re on the cusp of something big with a high-quality project that leaves a legacy for Northam, the Avon Valley and the wider Wheatbelt region,” she said.
Davies said the site’s developable area of almost 54ha was “quite challenging”.
“It’s a very hilly part of Northam and bulk earthworks to level the site have been going on around the clock since May 2025,” she said.
The AvonWest site is at the corner of Great Eastern Highway and Yilgarn Avenue, 15 minutes drive east of Northam and an hour’s drive west of the Perth CBD.
