The Andrews government can't be serious. They are giving away the freehold title of approximately a quarter of the station precinct, reducing car parks by 170 spaces, doing nothing to make the platforms accessible to people with mobility issues, failing to fund a regional bus interchange, and failing to even consider bringing urban buses onto the site -ever. And on top of this they are giving away $25m of taxpayers funds to achieve it.

They claim the business case for serviced apartments, a small convention centre and a few shops is so strong that these extraordinary actions are justified. But they will not show us the business case. We must take them on trust. Hands up everyone who is willing to take any politician on trust alone?

SOS Ballarat have an alternative proposal to spend the $25m on improving public transport. It provides 240 more car parks than the government proposes. It brings urban and regional buses into the site and connects all platforms for buses and trains with disabled-compliant and weather-protected access. Unlike the government plan, it covers the cost of traffic management works around the site.

Geoff Howard dismisses the use of the Goods Shed for a bus interchange by claiming patrons will choke on diesel fumes from the buses. SOS Ballarat propose raising the ridge cap on the roof just like the train station, which allows air to flow through its open ends and up through the roof.

While SOS Ballarat and its growing band of supporters seek to find ways to make our station a more accessible and effective transport hub, Geoff offers excuses not to consider the obvious. His colleagues, Jaala Pulford, the responsible minister, and Sharon Knight, in whose electorate the station sits, offer nothing at all.

Considering works on their ill-conceived project will be in full swing by the next election in 2018, frustrated drivers looking for car parks, beleaguered neighbours unable to park outside their own homes, and people making a wet-weather dash along Lydiard St from the buses to their waiting trains will also ponder the bleeding obvious. Labor is not listening.

John Barnes, Save our Station

In fixing on a national day can I suggest a subtle shift in date but a profound shift in emphasis. I suggest we bring the date forward one day, to the 25th January, the day before Phillip un-loaded his human cargo in 1788. Our reflection could then be focused on this land, standing that day in its pristine state and with a native people who understood its complexities in a way that those holed up in the eleven wooden ships off shore could not.

Rather than celebrating people and their deeds, (which we could shift to the annual anniversary of Federation) our emphasis should be on the land we have come to love and a thanksgiving for what it has yielded. We can salute those who were here for thousands of years but touched it lightly. At the same time we can embrace a dawning awareness in this present age, of what we must do to preserve its health. Sure, we have built large cities and infrastructure spanning the continent. We are culturally diverse; our farms are efficient producers feeding our millions and a vital export market. These are significant but not unique.

Our Natural History is unique. Can we change the emphasis on Australia Day to one of dedication to our beloved land. Forty years ago, Manning Clark sub-titled the fourth volume of his History of Australia "The Earth Abideth Forever." The question today is: in what form and will the human race be part of it.

Peter Hiscock, Buninyong