EARLIER this year, the South Coast Register published a series of stories calling for more food to be grown locally. We pointed out the benefits of local produce for freshness and for reducing transport costs and greenhouse emissions.

Happily, those calls seem to have, if you will excuse the pun, borne fruit with the proposal to build Australia’s biggest greenhouse near Bolong Road. This venture will not only produce food, it will generate its own electricity and employ up to 250 local people, which in turn will see more money circulating through the local economy.

And that is just the first stage. To follow will be an algae farm for biofuels and after that an aquaculture project.

To make this venture even more attractive, surely, will be an upgrade of our rail system so it will be able to get this produce to the Sydney markets without putting additional strain on our roads. Here is an opportunity to rethink and remodel our local transport infrastructure and make proper use of the railhead we have at Bomaderry.

A big project like this needs to be backed up with big-picture thinking. And an improvement to the existing rail line is an obvious part of that. With plans to expand the cargo capacity of Port Kembla and finish the Maldon-Dombarton line, there is an opportunity to include the South Coast line as part of that infrastructure.