Soil erosion, collapsed culverts, loss of gravel surface, retained stormwater, exposed rock reefs were just some of what O’Keefe Rail Trail users have endured over a number of years. Yet that situation, in the Bendigo-Axedale section, has seen positive changes occurring!
Those experiences are becoming a thing of the past, with the efforts of the Friends of the Bendigo-Kilmore Rail Trail to improve this trail. The City of Greater Bendigo Council has also listened to community and trail user feedback. Over the past 2-3 years, the Council has embarked on a maintenance program to address many of the worst sections of the trail.
Machinery at work upgrading the O’Keefe Rail Trail. Photo: Garry Long
Maintenance work is currently occurring on the rail trail in the Junortoun area, an outer rural suburb of Bendigo, by a Council contractor. This work is upgrading the trail’s drainage, reconstructing the trail’s profile, and applying a new gravel surface.
New storm water drainage under construction. Photo: Garry Long
Trail users do need to take care in this area, observe warning signs and directives given by Council’s contractor, with machinery presently working in the Wilkie Rd – Somerset Park Rd – Bennetts Rd sections of the trail. For further information regarding these works, trail users can contact the City of Greater Bendigo Council on (03) 54346000.
Feedback received from trail users who may not have been on the trail for many years, and then travelled on those completed sections, have expressed their pleasant surprise at the various improvements made to the trail.
Note: For updates on the O’Keefe Rail Trail’s new extension (Axedale to Heathcote), and gaining an understanding of the trail sections closed to the general public, be informed by reading the Trail Route Notes page.
