About Us

The Wheatbelt Secondary Freight Network (WSFN) is overseen by a Steering Committee comprised of the representatives from the Wheatbelt North and Wheatbelt South Regional Road Groups, Main Roads Western Australia, the WA Local Government Association, Wheatbelt Development Commission and Regional Development Australia Wheatbelt.

The Wheatbelt region produces 41 per cent of the State’s total gross value of agricultural production, worth $3.35 billion in 2015/16 (Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development 2018 Western Australia Gross Regional Product).

Industry and jobs depend on an efficient supply chain in order to remain internationally competitive. It is vital that the Wheatbelt has an interconnected network that is well integrated with Western Australia’s intermodal freight transport system.

Many of the roads in the Wheatbelt region were not designed for and are unable to safely accommodate the increase in size and mass of the vehicles required by industry to remain competitive.  Key routes have been identified for upgrade on Local Government roads, which will enable these requested larger vehicles to access the routes with a resulting increase in transport efficiency. 

According to the road safety statistics collated by the Western Australian Road Safety Commission, the Killed and Serious Injury (KSI) rate within the Wheatbelt Region of Western Australia is more than double the rate of any other region within the State.

To the five years ending 2016, the KSI rate for the Wheatbelt Region was 259.4 per 100,000 of population.  This compared to the Regional KSI rate of 127.5 per 100,000 (a total for all regional areas) and the Metropolitan Region KSI rate of 115.6 per 100,000. 

By upgrading the roads along these routes, safety of the roads will be increased as the geometry of the roads will be improved and through the increase in the size of vehicles used for the freight, the number of trucks on the road will be reduced.  These will result in an improved in the KSI rate for the Region.

WSFN Steering Committee

WSFN Technical Committee

Program Management Team