BUILD it and they will come. Committee for Ballarat chair Judy Verlin and chief executive John Kilgour brought Ballarat MP and Regional Services Minister Catherine King to their own "field of dreams" yesterday.

Their message: the sooner work begins on the planned regional freight and logistics hub, the sooner the Ballarat West Employment Zone will start employing people.

"We estimate in excess of 9000 jobs will be created when this area is fully developed," Ms Verlin said yesterday. "The focus for the Committee for Ballarat is about populating it and getting the businesses in.

"When the first shovel goes in it is still a long time before we see those jobs. To make it happen we have to start turning a sod.

"There was an election pledge by the state government for the Ballarat Western Link road to unlock the area. The key from an Australian government point of view is the freight and logistics terminal.

"It is about lobbying the federal government, with an election coming up, to make sure it comes up. We spoke with (Greens) Senator Richard Di Natale about it on Tuesday. We are having a meeting with John Fitzgibbon (Liberal) soon. Today it was about Catherine."

The freight hub site is bordered by the Ballarat Airport, the proposed Western Link road and the rail line between Melbourne and Adelaide. The first stage is to establish a facility for handling road-based freight, with through-put of up to 195 trucks a day.

Ms King said she was not yet ready to make an announcement about the freight centre but said she had taken an interest in the project. "I'm here to orientate myself and have a look," she said. "It's one thing to sit in an office and another entirely to actually see it."

Ms King will attend a national freight plan meeting today with the Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure in Canberra.

gavin.mcgrath@fairfaxmedia.com.au