Some of our ideas  are in this post by Rail Express

https://www.railexpress.com.au/rail-trails-bill-passes-parliament/

The move continues to anger the Northern Railways Defenders Forum, which has been steadfastly against the legislation.

Spokesmen Siri Gamage and Mathew Tierney said as the country faced higher fuel prices, and with a need to commit to meaningful climate change targets, it is the wrong time to be alienating railway lines from their original purposes.

“We are not against rail trails per se, just ones that can be done by ministerial fiat, despite the real opportunities that we are currently exploring,” they said.

“Let’s instead see a full review of the non-used but still open railway lines to see what purposes they can and should be put to as functional railway lines.

“With Inland Rail, for example, there is a clear case to re-activate many of the old grain lines as feeders to this major piece of rail infrastructure.  In other areas such as the New England, the inevitable significant growth in truck traffic can be substantially reduced by using rail, which can feed to the new intermodal at Tamworth as well as significantly improving safety on this major route.

“In addition, the rail line upgrading, if extended into Queensland, could form a flood-free emergency freight option for that inevitable time when both the Inland Rail and Coastal railways are flooded by our increasingly erratic climate.  In addition, as we learned in the last major drought, it is difficult and at times logistically impossible to truck water in to tableland towns, whereas rail can manage this much more easily.
 
“These rail lines need to be incorporated into short, medium and long-term transport planning for the restoration of an efficient and effective non-metropolitan rail alternative.”