The Friends acknowledge that the council’s priority for at least the next 18 months is the Goulburn River High Country Rail Trail, but it is fantastic to have the council’s in principle support for the long-term vision. See the Mitchell Shire Council’s web site for the agenda which includes the report about the rail trail that was presented to council (PDF 984 kb).

Bicycle Victoria is looking for volunteers to help count bikes in Melbourne and Bendigo, and they’ll dontate $50 to a cycling organisation nominated by each volunteer to support the organisation’s activities.

The Friends of the Bendigo-Kilmore Rail Trail are on the list of organisations you can support. So if you can help gather vital data about bicycle use to help councils with their transport planning, please register on BV’s web site. Select the Friends when you register (down the bottom of the supporters page) and you’ll also be helping get the rail trail to Kilmore. BV will send you a pack of goodies to help with your counting.

Even if you’re counting in Melbourne, you can still nominate the Friends.

See you out on your bike on Super Tuesday.

Please send us an email using the form below or letter of support to include in the submission, stating where you’re from and why you’d like to see the trail extended. The more statements of support we can collect the better, so a small investment of your time could have big returns on the ground.

Council has given us a pretty short deadline – please have your statement to us by midnight next Tuesday 26 January.

Post
Mr Craig Niemann
CEO, City of Greater Bendigo
C/- Friends of the Bendigo-Kilmore Rail Trail
PO Box 1238
Bendigo  Vic  3552

We look forward to hearing from you! Here’s the form for your email statement of support. It comes to the Friends and we’ll collate for the submission:

• Council votes to apply for funding
• New bridges between Bendigo and Axedale
• Counters installed on the trail
• Job opportunities

Unanimous vote for funding

At its meeting on 16 December, the City of Greater Bendigo council voted unanimously to support preparing a detailed grant submission to Regional Development Victoria to fund the extension of the trail to Heathcote. Councillors spoke enthusiastically about the tourism and economic development potential and what a marvellous asset it will be for local communities to enjoy and improve the health and wellbeing of their members. Some Councillors even mentioned going to Kilmore, which is well outside this council’s boundaries, yet is definitely the ‘big picture’ vision of our group..

The resolution means council is willing to fund part of the development, as grants generally require co-contributions from local government.

The grant submission should be ready by March 2010. (Read the report submitted to council. PDF 100 kb)

Back to top

Six new bridges

The City of Greater Bendigo has called for tenders to design and build replacement bridges between Bendigo and Axedale for the trail. Construction does depend on funding, but that’s being worked on (see above). See the council’s web site for details.

Back to top

Counters installed

You are being watched! The council has installed two counters on the trail, one at the Strickland Rd original wooden railway bridge (only one of two between Bendigo and Heathcote) and the other at the Axecreek swing bridge. This information will help back up anecdotal evidence about the trail’s usage with some hard figures – all good when you’re applying for funding to upgrade and extend.

Back to top

Job opportunities next year

Bendigo council is very supportive and things are happening at the Bendigo end of the trail, but there’s still lots of work to do. Early 2010 we’ll be preparing our ‘battle plan’ for the year ahead – and looking for some more hands to help.

Immediately, we’re looking for someone to take on either the communications or the secretarial duties. (The two are a bit big for one person to manage.) So if you have skills to fill either and a couple of hours a week to put in, please let us know.

Thanks to all those who’ve done some fabulous work this year. We’ve achieved some great things so far, in a relatively short time frame.

Have a safe and happy Christmas and we look forward to meeting up with you all on the trail next year!

Back to top

Can you show your support?

We know it’s awfully short notice this close to Christmas, but if you’re available, please come and show your support:

• When: Wednesday 16 December, 6.00 pm
• Where: Reception room (upstairs at the town hall, Lyttleton Terrace)

We believe the rail trail will be discussed sometime between 6.00 and 7.00 pm.

Look forward to seeing you there.

For some years past, the trail has meandered partly through private land at Arakoon Water Park. Through our good working relationship with the City of Greater Bendigo Council, this part of the trail is currently being realigned back onto the original railway alignment. Works are in progress, with the installation of a culvert pipe for drainage and reforming/gravelling of the trail. Arakoon will soon be ‘officially’ bypassed by the trail.

The trail from Longlea Lane to the Axe Creek swing bridge has been regraded, and we are hoping for a new gravel surface to be installed soon.

Also, from our discussions with council, the crossing over Longlea Lane has been realigned. No need to ride down a 100 kph road. You can now zip straight across (carefully!) and ride down a new off-road path to rejoin the trail. Final path surfacing of this new section is expected to be completed soon.

The City of Greater Bendigo has engaged a landscape architect to redesign the approaches to the Axe Creek bridge, to improve the safe access onto the swing bridge, although the bridge itself will stay. Gaining funding/grants for this work will now be the next step to allow this upgrade to begin.

The council has also been assessing the missing bridges on the trail, between Bendigo and Axedale, and the outcomes of this should determine how best to deal with their replacement. We await the outcome of this study, and then possible funding options to address the recommendations.

We learned recently that a council officer has drafted a Memorandum of Understanding to underpin cooperation between the three agencies. We’ve also spoken with CVGT about the possibility of taking on part of the resignage project that’s desperately needed. If you want to help out on that project – on the ground, or lobbying the three agencies, contact us using the form below:

The Loddon Mallee Region Iconic Trails Strategic Plan is a joint project of
ten local governments and number of state government departments to identify
potential walking, cycling, mountain biking, canoeing and horse riding
trails of regional significance that will attract domestic and international
tourists to the area.

The study is looking at what makes a trail significant; what features are
required to attract trail users and which natural and cultural features are
likely to be of interest in this region to potential trail users.  Have
your say on this online survey (open until end November).

There will also be a number of workshops held throughout the region:

• Cycling / mountain biking workshop in Woodend on Monday 16 November
• Walking trail workshop in Wedderburn on Tuesday 17 November.

See www.communityvibe.com.au for details of other workshops.

We met with Coliban Water and its representative Karin Van Poppel, Property Risk Officer at Coliban Water at the end of September. Coliban Water is keen to support community based recreational development where it can on land under its control. Initial indications are that parts of the proposed trail do go through Coliban Water controlled property.

Since that meeting, an eagle-eyed Friend spotted a property for sale near Derrinal that includes a lease from Coliban for a section of the original railway reserve. We have been got in touch with Coliban Water to see whether they were aware of the sale (they weren’t) and we have now registered our interest in this particular lease.

If you see anything like that, please let us know by email (see how to contact us) or by phoning Garry Long 0409 565 404 and we’ll get in touch with the appropriate authority.

Damian Drum MLC (Nationals)

Damian also indicated support for development of the trail. Rail trails had come up during a recent tourism enquiry, so he was familiar with the concept. State elections are due next year, which raises opportunities for commitments to projects like this. Damian said he would aim to have it put on the coalition’s tourism agenda, which should put some pressure on Labor to match it. However, they would all want to see a feasibility study with costings, hurdles, routes and so on before committing to the project. We will continue to lobby both councils and the state government for a feasibility study to be completed. Here’s the handout we left with Damian (PDF 225kb).

Mitchell Shire council

Kilmore sits within Mitchell Shire and we were fortunate to be able to brief the Mitchell Shire council late in October about the proposed trail. Mitchell Shire is currently up to its ears in the development of the Goulburn River High Country Rail Trail (134 km from Tallarook to Mansfield). We made it clear we didn’t expect them to commit any resources at this stage, but we would like an in-principle agreement to support the project. Such agreement would help protect public lands through which the trail might pass from being sold off or designated for other purposes. The Mayor said they would take it to a strategic meeting for a decision. We’re now waiting to hear. Here’s the handout we left with the council (PDF 485kb).

Jacinta Allan (MP) Minister for Regional and Rural Development

We have a meeting in Bendigo with the Minster in mid-November. We’ll be briefing her on the proposal and asking what we need to do to secure funding for the project.