Ballot packs will be mailed to enrolled voters from today.

Four candidates - Colin Churton, John Mitakakis, Philip Flack and Anthony Clarke - are contesting the by-election after Wendy Kendall resigned from the post in April.

Victorian Electoral Commission returning officer Doug Lindsay said voters should complete and return their ballot papers as soon as they arrive.

Voters who have not received their ballot packs by July 16 should contact the VEC on 113 18 32 for a replacement.

Ballot papers must be in by 6pm on Friday, July 25.

The Courier's Moorabool Shire reporter Marcus Power spoke with the four candidates about their plans for the ward:

COLIN CHURTON says he has "manifold" reasons for standing as a Bungal ward by-election candidate.

The Ballan small business owner listed developing more jobs in the region, getting better value for money for local ratepayers and improving the ward's roads among his chief concerns.

"In this partiuclar region, there's very little work for people," Mr Churton said.

"People will be leaving this shire as petrol prices bite simply because of the cost of going backwards and forwards to Melbourne and Ballarat because of work."

If elected councillor, he said, he would explore offering incentives to businesses to set up in the region to provide more jobs, especially for young people.

He said he believed Bacchus Marsh received the "lion's share" of money spent on infrastructure, such as roads, and Ballan had missed out by comparison.

"I think a lot of people find that unfair. Our roads are in a lot of cases appalling and they're not getting any better."

Mr Churton, 58, has lived in the Moorabool Shire for 25 years.

TRANSPORT forms the key plank of Anthony Clarke's election platform.

The Ballan 57-year-old has made the re-opening of Gordon railway station a key message in his campaign to be elected councillor for the Bungal Ward.

He said the cost of petrol had made it imperative the number of stations around Ballarat be increased. He also supported the re-opening of Dunnstown station.

A migration agent, Mr Clarke said he had the experience necessary to be a good councillor.

"I've worked so much with government departments and I'm able to talk to people and communicate their concerns . . . to try to get things happening."

A past-president of the Ballan-Bungaree Liberal Party branch, he has twice previously stood for preselection at state and federal level.

He said working on election campaigns for 30 years gave him an in-depth knowledge of the workings of government.

The timing of the by-election, four months out from council elections in November did not worry him, he said.

Mr Clarke said the environment was also a priority for him and he wanted to see organic and biodynamic farming encouraged.

EXPERIENCE makes all the difference for Bungal ward candidate Philip Flack.

Mr Flack, 60, said his resume included teaching at secondary and TAFE level, in tertiary education management and as a small business owner in Australia and overseas.

After living in Melbourne for 30 years, Mr Flack moved to Ballan permanently two years ago.

But he said he had a long association with the town and region, owning the former Ballan Post and Telegraph office which his grandparents had built in 1852.

More recently he has been on the Ballan hospital fund-raising committee and a member of the town's Chamber of Commerce.

He said he had no big local issues to campaign on, preferring to get more information "before I start being an expert".

"(But) I'm aware people in the ward, quite a few of them are struggling with inflation and the price of petrol, which are more of Federal/State issues, but they are certainly affecting the people."

In council you can probably make that a bit more efficient and provide the services they provide less expensively or with lower increases."

JOHN MITAKAKIS says he will put residents' interests ahead of council interests if elected Bungal ward councillor.

A registered builder who has lived in the Moorabool Shire since 1989, Mr Mitakakis said he wants to put council back in the hands of the people.

"This is what the purpose of a community council (is). There is no such thing as local government. They call it local government but it's not. The community elects a council and it represents them," Mr Mitakakis, 68, said.

The Ballan resident said the ward's ratepayers had got the poor end of the bargain out of the merger of the former Ballan and Bacchus Marsh shires.

"Ever since we amalgamated there is no progress. We pay high salaries (to council managers) and so on, and we get not much for our money."

He said the present council spent too much money on "consultants" and not enough on "the needs of the community", such as infrastructure.

If elected, he said, he would work to attract businesses to the ward to create local jobs.

Transparency in the council's affairs, especially in its finances, would also be a major priority, he said.