PUBLIC consultation is about to start on the feasibility of establishing Ballan as a cycling hub and Blackwood as a hiking hub.<\/p>\n
The Moorabool Shire council has appointed planning, economics and tourism consultancy Urban Enterprise to complete feasibility studies on each of the proposals after receiving Tidy Towns grants totalling $75,000.<\/p>\n
Both initiatives are listed as priorities in the shire\u2019s Visitor Economy Strategy as ways of strengthening the municipality\u2019s nature-based tourism offerings.<\/p>\n
The Ballan study will focus on how to leverage the township\u2019s proximity to towns such as Daylesford, Ballarat, Gordon and Greendale, and natural attractions like the Werribee Gorge and the Brisbane Ranges.<\/p>\n
The Blackwood investigation will consider how that township can be linked to Bacchus Marsh and the Wombat and Lerderderg state forests for hiking.<\/p>\n
Urban Enterprise will lead consultation sessions for businesses and community groups at the Ballan Library and the Blackwood Hall on Monday 20 April.<\/p>\n
The Ballan session will take place from 10am to 11.30am and the Blackwood event from 2pm to 3.30pm.<\/p>\n
The consultants will also conduct online engagement with relevant industries, while submissions will be accepted through the council\u2019s Have Your Say platform.<\/p>\n
Draft feasibility studies are scheduled to go on public exhibition in September and final studies are expected to be presented to councillors at a meeting in November.<\/p>\n
Councillors voted at their meeting earlier this month to move to the consultation stage of the study projects, which will have an overall cost of $100,000. The shire is covering the remaining cost outside the grant allocations with $25,000 drawn from its arts and economic development recurrent budget.<\/p>\n
The shire has already established an internal project working group, which is also involved in the study process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese studies will assess opportunities to grow tourism visitation and stimulate local economic development by identifying Ballan\u2019s potential as a cycling tourism hub and Blackwood\u2019s potential as a hiking tourism hub,\u201d Moorabool mayor Cr Steve Venditti-Taylor said after the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough data analysis, stakeholder engagement, and alignment with regional strategies, the studies will examine how targeted infrastructure investment can support increased visitor numbers, longer stays, and stronger connections to local businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr Venditti-Taylor said the findings would inform future investment decisions aimed at boosting the visitor economy, supporting local enterprises, strengthening regional connectivity, and enhancing liveability through sustainable tourism growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUBLIC consultation is about to start on the feasibility of establishing Ballan as a cycling hub and Blackwood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-612323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}