The Creswick Trails Project continues to move ahead after a Project Governance Agreement was signed by all six land owners last week.
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The project, which was delayed in July 2018 after Hepburn Shire Council announced it was taking longer than expected to negotiate the maintenance of the trails with the five other land managers, is now back on track.
Hepburn Shire Council, Regional Development Victoria, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, HVP Plantations and Melbourne University all gathered to sign the document on August 28.
In signing the document, each land owner has committed to working collaboratively to deliver the project, which involves building and linking 100km of mountain bike trails across six land tenures in and around Creswick.
In addition to the land managers, RACV Goldfields Resort also pledged its support for the project, indicating mountain biking was included in its future strategic direction and that it had recently committed to building more mountain bike infrastructure at the resort.
The trails will link plantation forest and gold field areas, making it a unique trail network.
At the meeting, Hepburn Shire Council’s General Manager of Infrastructure, Bruce Lucas, updated the audience on the progress of the project.
He said the land managers had all worked closely together to finalise the stage one trail alignment that allowed the project to move to the tendering stage for construction. He also confirmed the construction of the pump track at Hammon Park would begin in late September.
The Victorian government has injected $2.56 million into the project, which is expected to create 30 jobs locally and put Creswick on the map for mountain biking.