The Australian Government has released the list of 86 projects to be funded under its AusLink Strategic Regional Programme. The funding will help improve many regional road links to the AusLink National Land Transport Network and fulfil one of the AusLink objectives of a holistic solution to Australia’s transport needs, involving all levels of government.
The Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads, Jim Lloyd, announced 29 ‘large projects’ and 57 ‘small projects’ within the $220 million AusLink Strategic Regional Programme cap late in 2006. Twenty-two projects had previously been provided with funding under the programme. Large scale projects were classified as seeking over $1 million and up to $10 million from the Australian Government, while a $1 million or less government contribution defined the smaller projects. More than 300 applications fell into the small project category.
“The projects and their outcomes demonstrate the success of the programme in encouraging a partnership funding approach to assist regional councils in upgrading transport infrastructure important for regional industries and communities,” Minister Lloyd said.
Mr Lloyd said the AusLink Strategic Regional Programme was designed to assist Councils develop regional and local transport infrastructure supporting industry, tourism and economic development, while also offering assistance to improve access and sustainability for rural areas.
“It is very popular with Councils across Australia and has proven to be an important new initiative targeting projects at the local level that otherwise would not have been able to start for many years to come,” he said. “There was strong interest across Australia to the call for funding submissions. We received 495 funding applications from 275 Councils asking for more than $1 billion for projects worth in excess of $2 billion.”
The Minister said that all projects involved the Australian Government acting in partnership with Councils, and in some cases, industry and State Governments.
“The strong response to the Strategic Regional Programme revealed a high number of quality projects and it was impossible to fund all of the best ones,” Mr Lloyd said.
A sample of the projects selected by the Australian Government for funding is as follows:
New South Wales
- $10 million to Kiama Council’s $20 million plan for improving safety and traffic flows at Conjola Mountain on the Princes Highway
- $2 million to the Midwest Regional Council to seal the Bylong Valley Way
- $1.08 million to the Parkes Council as a contribution towards upgrading the access road to the town’s multimodal HUB site
- $1.19 million to Tumut Council to invest in the $1.7 million upgrade of Main Road 278.
Victoria
- $4.2 million to the Alpine Shire Council towards the $9.98 million upgrade of the Bogong High Plans Road
- $1.83 million to the Hume City Council towards upgrading narrow and gravel sections of Arundel and Annandale roads
- $2.08 million went towards upgrading eight bridge crossings across six council areas in the Gippsland Region.
Queensland
- $7 million went to Aramac Shire Council for sealing the Starlight Way – the last unsealed section of road between Townsville and Melbourne
- $1.6 million to Cook Shire Council to upgrade the Northern Peninsula Road Access, north of Cairns
- $7 million to Ipswich City Council towards the $10 million Cunningham Highway – Swanbank Enterprise Park Link.
Western Australia
- $10 million to the City of Swan for its $22.9 million project to extend Lloyd Street
- $3.5 million went to the City of Armadale for the Ranford Road upgrade
- $2.69 million to Kalamunda Shire for the duplication of a section of Abernethy Road adjacent to the Perth International Airport
- $2.08 million went to the Toodyay Shire to upgrade Stirling Terrace.
South Australia
- $2 million was provided to Wakefield Council to go towards the $4 million required for an expansion of the freight handling capacity of the Bowmans Intermodal site on the Adelaide Plains.
Tasmania
- $2.8 million to the Huon Valley Council to go towards the sealing of the Esperance Coast Road.
Northern Territory
- The Australian Government will provide $4.95 million for improvements along the Port Keats Road access to Wadeye, one of the most remote Indigenous communities in Australia and the sixth largest town in the Northern Territory.
All these applications were assessed according to the criteria provided by the Department of Transport and Regional Services in the application process.
Completed projects from the earlier round of project announcements include:
- safety improvements to Jervis Bay Road intersection, New South Wales (one of four sub-projects within the Princes Highway safety improvement project)
- traffic lights at Yan Yean and Ironbark Roads, Yarrambat, Victoria
- a boardwalk along Metung Road, Victoria
- the Russett Park Causeway in Mareeba Shire, Far North Queensland
- an upgrade of Port Sorell Road, Tasmania.
For more details, please check the website at www.auslink.gov.au/funding/strategic/index.aspx
