Infrastructure Priorities for the Regions
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Infrastructure Priorities for the Regions Submissions template Before making a submission, please read the background materials provided Your name: The organisation you represent: Baw Baw Shire Council Your position: Email: Contact phone number: Submission Your submission can cover either comparative advantage or addressing regional disadvantage, or both. Please ensure your submission addresses the following questions and you are encouraged to provide any supporting evidence or documentation to support your submission. • Comparative advantage – complete section 1 • Addressing regional disadvantage – complete section 2 • Comparative advantage and addressing regional disadvantage – complete sections 1 and 2. 1. Comparative Advantage Submissions in response to our Comparative Advantage work should address the following questions: To which region or regions does your submission relate? Gippsland Region – Baw Baw Shire Council LGA Referring to Table ES 2 of the regional profile (executive summary section), have we captured the main issues facing the industries of comparative advantage in your region? Are there any issues missing? Please provide further evidence. Within Baw Baw Shire, but also within other LGA’s across the Gippsland region, there is significant opportunity to build on and diversify an already strong Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Industry through vertical integration. Expanding the potential for Gippsland’s Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Industry through further growth of existing downstream industries and the creation of new secondary industries will be critical to maintain and grow a skilled, local workforce. Opportunities exist for existing downstream industry such as secondary food production and processing, as well as the development of new businesses within emerging industries such as Agri- tech. Examples of businesses within Baw Baw Shire that have successfully expanded into Infrastructure Victoria Level 33, 140 Wiliam St, Melbourne 3000 | T (03) 9936 1737 infrastructurevictoria.com.au downstream industries from traditional primary production include Flavorite, a fresh tomato producer and Fonterra, a milk processing facility. Both companies and their local facilities have created significant employment, current market and future market potential within domestic and overseas markets. Both these companies are examples of where businesses have vertically integrated by developing their business to be more than just primary production and have successfully integrated downstream industries. The growth and attraction for other businesses, like Flavorite and Fonterra, to vertically integrate will be underpinned by the road, rail, port and air infrastructure that is available to support and attract businesses of this nature, and those that will continue to support and grow the high quality Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries, Industry. In addition to the main issues highlighted in Table ES 2 of the Gippsland regional profile, other key issues facing both the Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Industry, namely the Agriculture Dairy Beef and Horticulture and Forestry and Logging sectors, is the need for improved road infrastructure for the ‘first and last mile’ type roads. ‘First and last mile’ projects that improve road infrastructure between primary producers, secondary sectors and major highway networks is critical to support the changing needs of the freight used to service current and future business in downstream industries, such as that of Flavorite and Fonterra. Particularly, within Baw Baw Shire the upgrade and improvement of strategic roads is critical to support the changing freight demands within both the LGA and the region. Improved local roads with strategic connections from the ‘farm gate’, to secondary production facilities and then to the State Highway Network and Gippsland Rail Infrastructure is going to be critical to support the continued growth and diversification of the Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Industry. Can you provide evidence of where infrastructure, or a lack thereof, is limiting economic development in the industries of comparative advantage? Baw Baw Shire has a significant local road network comprising of approximately 1,800km of road. A significant majority of these roads service the rural area of the Shire, and are important infrastructure assets to service the Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Industry. Many of these roads act as secondary freight routes to service the Agriculture Dairy, Beef and Horticulture sector and the Forestry and Logging sectors. In addition to this over 700km of the local road network is unsealed. The changing nature and increase in the size of heavy vehicles servicing these sectors and the transition to higher dimensional vehicles is demonstrating that the rural sealed road network and unsealed road network cannot cater for the safe, efficient transport of freight from primary producers. Do you have ideas for infrastructure related solutions, or exceptional examples of what’s working well that could be duplicated in other areas? Continued investment in strategic local road infrastructure from local government, as well as other levels of government, is critical to ensure the continued economic development of rural areas in the peri-urban areas of Gippsland, including Baw Baw. However, given Baw Baw Shire is the fastest growing peri-urban Council within Victoria, the demand on resources to cater for a growing population, will likely limit the amount of necessary capital that will be available to invest in the strategic local road infrastructure given the rate-capped environment, and the vast size of the road network. Page 2 of 8 Therefore, it is critical that state and federal government develop alternate funding streams for peri- urban Councils, such as Baw Baw Shire, that will enable the continued necessary capital investment into the strategic local road network to support economic growth in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries industry, whilst being able to fund the necessary services and infrastructure to support a growing peri-urban communities. Examples of alternate funding streams could be the creation of a ‘Growing Towns Fund’, similar to the ‘Growing Suburbs Fund’ (see: https://www.localgovernment.vic.gov.au/council-funding-and- grants/growing-suburbs-fund), to support the necessary infrastructure to cater for the significant population growth forecast within the peri-urban areas. Within Baw Baw Shire and across the Gippsland region there are significant detour and weight restrictions placed on roads and bridges. These restrictions often restrict the production capacity of agriculture and manufacturing industries throughout the region. A range of key strategic local roads within the Baw Baw Shire are incorporated within the GLGN Gippsland Regional Roads Group – Road Network Priorities 2017 and Advocacy Priorities 2019 – A Better Future for Baw Baw document. These include the following. • Yarragon Leongatha Road - $3m o Widen, stabilise, seal shoulders and unsealed sections of the road between Yarragon and Allambee. • Jacksons Track - $1.3m o Widen, stabilise and seal the road in Jindivick. • Main South Road - $3m o Widen, stabilise and seal 7kms of the road. • Old Sale Road - $4m o Widen stabilise, seal and tree removal of sections of the road between Drouin and Westbury. • O’Briens Road - $910k o Widen stabilise and seal road near Westbury. • Jindivick Neerim South Road - $1.2m o Widen stabilise and seal road between Jindivick and Neerim. Completed upgrades of the six roads will provide clear connections without load restrictions to the Princes Highway, the main arterial road for freight in the region. Over the last five-year period there have been several road casualty accidents reported along the six roads. Upgrades to all will greatly improve conditions and reduce the level of road trauma on the Baw Baw community. Please provide business plans, service plans, program evaluations or other evidence to support your submission. See attachments. • Gippsland Local Government Network (GLGN) Gippsland Freight Strategy 2013 • GLGN Gippsland Regional Roads Group – Road Network Priorities 2017 • Advocacy Priorities 2019 – A Better Future for Baw Baw • ProfileID and Forecast ID – Populations Statistics - https://profile.id.com.au/baw-baw Page 3 of 8 2. Addressing Regional Disadvantage Submissions in response to our Addressing Regional Disadvantage work should address the following questions: To which region or regions does your submission relate? Gippsland Region – Baw Baw Shire Have we captured the main issues of disadvantage in your region? If not, can you provide further evidence? Baw Baw Shire is a peri-urban Council situated on south eastern boundary of Melbourne and the western boundary of the Gippsland Region. Data at a regional level would suggest that the disadvantage within the Shire is relatively low. However, Baw Baw has a unique distribution of advantage and disadvantage. The major townships along the Princes Highway Corridor of Warragul, Drouin, Longwarry, Yarragon and Trafalgar represent a significant proportion (over 78%) of Baw Baw Shire’s total population of 52,015 (ABS, 2018). The population of these townships was estimated at 40,804 in 2018. These townships generally have good access to services and key infrastructure, such as the Princes Highway and the Gippsland Rail link. Whilst there is generally access to services and infrastructure to support these townships and communities, these townships have SEIFA