5 September 2013 ABN 94 479 743 813

Executive Officer, Environment and Natural Resources Committee, Parliament House, Spring Street, East Vic 3002

Inquiry into Heritage Tourism and Ecotourism in

Dear sir/madam

Introduction Rail Trails is the national organisation promoting the development and use of former railway corridors as multipurpose trails. Rail trails are popular with walkers, bike riders and horse riders as they provide a safe off road link between communities. Because the trails were originally designed for trains, they are also easily graded in hilly country which is particularly appreciated by cyclists. What also sets rail trails apart from other trails, and adds to their attraction, is their heritage and care taken with vegetation. Rail corridors were sometimes reserved for transport use before the clearance and farming of natural bush occurred. Hence the vegetation located along Victoria’s extensive network of rail trails is often a living example of the original foliage.

Many rail trails in Victoria are managed by local government or volunteer organisation, and even those managed by local government have volunteer “Friends of the Rail Trail” groups. Particularly for the Friends groups, the preservation and restoration of historical infrastructure and improvements to the environment of the trail corridor is of major interest. In Victoria there is approximately 850km of good standard rail trail open, a remarkable achievement in less than 20 years and is considerably ahead of all other states. These trails provide significant recreational, commuting and health benefits for locals. For longer trails particularly they increasingly provide economic benefit to the regions as they attract the increasing number of visiting rail trail users. Most rail trails have notable heritage items on them, many heritage listed, to add to the experience for users. These include  Timber “trestle” bridges – eg: , Skipton, Nowa Nowa, , Shelley  Other significant bridges – eg: Tallangatta, Nicholson, Bonne Doon  Station buildings or station facilities – eg: Bright, Beechworth, Koroit, Mansfield, Yea  Significant cuttings and embankments often developed by hand during the 19th century.

Railtrails Australia – rail trails connecting communities

Current Activities Quite often where some valuable heritage items have been removed or deteriorated beyond repair they will be recreated. This is particularly so with station platforms and station name boards. Rail Trails Australia has helped ensure that almost all rail trails have the same style of historic station name board to provide a historic atmosphere and a common theme between rail trails. While the committees of management realise the major heritage items can be significant maintenance liabilities, they believe this is worthwhile for the heritage it preserves and the extra experience it adds to using the rail trail, important in the increasingly competitive recreational tourism area. Revegetation is also of great interest to Friends groups, and this coupled with some unique ecological areas inadvertently preserved by railway lines also means the ecology of rail trails is an important factor for some visitors.

Eco tourism is not restricted to enjoyment of heritage structures and significant vegetation. Rail trails provide a safe and accessible off-road path for tourists to use and enjoy, either by foot, bicycle or horse. Clearly, the carbon footprint from this activity is very small. But the benefit to the regional communities and the tourism providers is enormous. It has been shown that overnight rail trail users spend ~$270 per day whilst they travel. This tends to be contained in a limited region, given the limitation of distant travel by this group. Consequent detailed exploration of local attractions, accommodation and food providers in close proximity to the rail trails proves the value of the corridor retention as a community resource and tourist attraction. The 850+km of rail trails in Victoria have variable services connected to them. There are some tourism operators that use the rail trails as part of their regional exploration. Walking, cycling, bird- watching and horticultural groups often use the Victorian rail trails as the focus of their journey. There are certainly many areas with substantial facilities associated to the rail trail. There are also many regions where the rail trail stands alone between towns, providing a “wilderness” experience for visitors. There is scope for tourism industry expansion and development to full harness the value and benefits of Victorian Rail Trails.

Issues for Consideration Rail trails provide an excellent means to justify preservation and use of some of our important industrial and natural heritage, as the items are well used or at least viewed. While we do not believe every historical item can be preserved, some priority should be given to identifying what remaining untouched items on rail trail corridors should be preserved and what items are in need of important maintenance. The ability of improving the economic benefits to smaller towns and communities hinges on an understanding and exposure of operators and business owners to worlds best practices that are expected by today’s rail trail tourists. The need to focus on ‘Traders on the Trail’, supplying the types of services and accommodations that world class ecotourism and heritage tourism expects is critical, and government agencies have a part to play. Access to targeted grants, that community groups like Friends of the Rail Trail can use to improve on-trail facilities as well as replica heritage elements, at a lower cost than that by local government. Planning and funding is required to improve the lack of interconnectivity of ‘stand alone’ rail trails in regional Victoria. The future potential of these trails would be enhanced by interconnections to create a network of trails that are also linked into the Melbourne metro trail network.

Railtrails Australia – rail trails connecting communities

Rail Trails in Victoria have been developed with great enthusiasm over the past 20 years. These rail trails now protect the rail corridors, retaining ecological and transport/exploration heritage, for all to use and enjoy. The Victorian rail trails are ready for further tourism expansion and development. We thank you for the opportunity to make this submission and would be pleased to provide more information if required.

Yours sincerely

Damian McCrohan President

Railtrails Australia – rail trails connecting communities