By Renee Wood
Yarra Ranges Council has begun campaigning for funding opportunities ahead of the upcoming federal election, urging prospective parties and candidates to get behind vital projects for the region.
‘Roads for Agribusiness’ is the first council wants supported with $150 million needed to deliver 150 kilometres of roads upgrades connected to local producers.
Almost 800 agriculture businesses are based across the municipality, however, unsealed roads are causing issues for crops, supply and tourism opportunities.
Several case studies have been investigated which have found dust from dirt roads are affecting the quality of nearby crops and unstable roads are damaging produce, like berries, going off to market.
A produce farm located near the intersection of two unsealed roads frequently sees road issues after heavy rain events, with potholes and washed out sections damaging goods in trucks as they drive over the damaged roads.
Mayor Jim Child said it’s a unique issue faced by the metro municipality.
“Our agricultural sector has over $701 million in economic output every year.. It’s the food bowl to Melbourne metropolitan area, but we’ve got these challenges,” Cr Child said.
“A political party or an independent can be assured by supporting this project for the life of this project, they’ll be getting the credit for delivering it.”
Helen and Joey Estate in Coldstream is just one business hopeful to see road upgrades on Spring Lane, with 700 metres of road constructed from Maroondah Highway needed in order to meet expansion plans and permits.
The road costs are a significant part of the permit requirements which was issued in 2018, however, the pandemic has severely affected the business, like many others, pushing the project out by two to four years as they face financial challenges.
Stephen Powell from Helen and Joey Estate said unsealed roads affect tourism numbers with drivers not wanting to drive or return to the estate due to the Spring Lane’s condition.
“We have had feedback saying they’re here now but they wouldn’t do it again,” Mr Powell said.
“We regularly see people putting themselves in a dangerous position, they treat it like it’s a single lane road, they approach this ridge line in the middle of the road and there’s cars coming from the other way and quite often they’re driving with unfamiliarity.”
Mr Powell said improvements to roads can make a huge impact in inviting visitors back to help boost business recovery after a tough two years.
“Anything’s going to help a little bit at the moment.. We’re 40 per cent of the staff, 40 per cent of the revenue and everything’s going up,” he said.
The project flows on from the council’s successful ‘Roads for Community’ initiative which was supported at the last federal election with $150 million.
Since 2018, ‘Roads for Community’ has been delivering upgrades to unsealed roads with a target set of 180km to be reached over the next nine years.
If the proposed project is successful, local residents and businesses will need to support the costs of the road upgrades, which is also part of the current community roads initiative, seeing property holders pay up to $7000. The funding helps to significantly reduce the cost of around $15,000.
“The strong buy in by the community has been amazing through the statutory process that we have to engage with. It’ll be no different with this project either,” Cr Child said.
Mayor Jim Child said some 1400 residents are set to benefit from the project and it will free up to half a million dollars of expenditure of grading unsealed roads yearly.
“It’s a big expense for us as a municipality.. We’re classed as a metropolitan municipality, but we’ve got in excess of 700 kilometres of unsealed roads that we have to deal with,” he said.
“So if we can get this type of funding to deliver this project along the same lines as we do in delivering the Roads to Community initiative, this is going to be a tremendous outcome and will benefit the whole municipality.”
