The Ballan station is looking pretty schmick at the moment, with its second platform and overpass fully operational after a massive upgrade.
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But it takes a team of dedicated volunteers to keep it looking so good even when all the hi-vis workers disappear.
Enter the Ballan Stationeers, one of dozens of groups across the state who love their town's train station, and want to make sure others do too.
Coordinator Mike Vale can often be seen weeding the gardens around the station with some of the volunteer group, keeping an eye on the slowly developing native gardens that arrived as part of the upgrade, and planning big things to make sure people know where they are when they whip through on the train.
Last week, when the transport infrastructure minister visited, Mr Vale welcomed her warmly then cheekily asked for another grant to finish the landscaping work.
"It's a good social thing, and it's a good thing to advocate for Ballan station," he said afterwards.
"Before we had the upgrade, we had a lot of bulbs and rose bushes, a more comprehensive garden in those days - then we found out the station would be significantly expanded, with new car parks and bus bays, we lost a significant amount of our garden.
"Since then, all the native plantings from the upgrade have given us a renewed vigour, and they're growing really well, it seems that because of the way the Ballarat Line Upgrade people designed it, the native plantings are really great."
The Ballan station first opened in 1886, with the handsome red water tank, "an amazing piece of Victorian-era engineering", built soon after for steam trains making their way to the newly-connected Bacchus Marsh and Melbourne stops - Mr Vale said it was originally hooked up to a reservoir about 10 kilometres away.
Given the station's history, there are a few quirks he'd like to preserve.
Because it's been there so long, stretches of green space were reserved when the station was first built, which Mr Vale described as "ecological islands".
"In front of the pine tree, on the south side, we've had a botanist come in who works at a native plant nursery, and he identified several native plants - orchids and native grasses - which have been growing there literally for millennia," Mr Vale said.
"It's about a block long and 50, 60 metres across - that space has never had livestock graze on it or tilled for crops."
That's worth recognising and keeping, he said, which is where the Stationeers come in.
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"What gives us the energy to keep going is quite often we're there on a Saturday, maybe for two hours, and people we don't know will come up to us wearing the vests to say "I like what you've done here" - It's a great thing, very complimentary," he said.
"Contact me, I'd be happy to show you the ropes - it's half social, half work, and the work's not too hard."
The Ballan Stationeers meet on the last Saturday of the month about 9.30 at the station - phone 0408 194 112 to get involved.
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