Bicycle Network: Funding & Budgets

Priority Setting - A difficult balancing act

There is rarely enough funding to build all bike facilities in any area. Therefore prioritising projects is an essential part of building the best possible bike network.

Rail Trails in southwest Victoria - an example of priority setting.

December 2006 - Southwest Victoria has recently seen a lot of funding announcements for the construction of rail trails. Successful projects have been:

$250,000 from Regional Development Victoria and $210,000 from BHP Billiton to construct the Coast to Crater Rail Trail between Timboon and Camperdown.
$850,000 from Regional Development Victoria and $935,000 from the Fedaeral Government's Regional Partnerships programme to contruct the Warrnambool to Port Fairy Rail Trail.

These projects have been successful in gaining large amounts of funding because they have been developed making sure they meet the criteria of a successful rail trail. The criteria is summarised in Regional Development Victoria's Provincial Pathways Program guidelines.

Bicycle Network Victoria has developed a more detailed criteria to assess the potential success and priority of rail trail projects. Below is a table comparing two of the southwest rail trails against our criteria, which suggests that both are high priority projects and that the Warrnambool to Port Fairy Rail Trail is likely to generate more users.

Priority Setting Criteria	Warrnambool-Port Fairy Rail Trail	Coast to Crater Rail Trail – Camperdown to Timboon
Population centre accessibility	Warrnambool and Port Fairy will feed large numbers of locals and visitors to the trail - STRONGER	Camperdown, Timboon and Cobden all provide excellent start or end points - WEAKER
Existing tourism infrastructure is highly beneficial	Warrnambool and Port Fairy are well established tourist towns. Koroit is a midway point that can currently provide meals and accommodation. - STRONGER	Tourism infrastructure in Timboon, Cobden and Camperdown offers accommodation and many other visitor facilities and attractions. - WEAKER
Scenic, historical and conservation values	The trail has unique features such as spectacular views of the coast, Tower Hill reserve, rail and agricultural heritage. - STRONG	The trail winds through scenic landscapes with features such as crater lakes, koala habitat and rainforest. - STRONG
Trail distance, trails must have sufficient distance (30 kilometres)	The 30 kilometres from Warrnambool to Port Fairy via Koroit is a perfect length for day trip or overnight return trip. - WEAKER	The 39 kilometres from Camperdown to Cobden is a perfect length and there is a likely connection to the Twelve Apostles - STRONGER
Support for the trail. Strong and active community.	Both trails have very active and proven community based Committees of Management that have been developing the projects for many years and have built substantial community support.
Trail quality; surface and separation from motor vehicles	Both trails will be constructed with high quality fine gravel surface that will be car-free for its entire length and will serve all users of the trail well.