This past weekend, Beaufort was home to a number of events including Beaufort by Twilight and Brass on the Grass at the Beaufort Golf and Bowls Club.

Weekends like that need to become a regularity for Beaufort if the town is to remain a destination after the bypass is built, according to Pyrenees Shire mayor Ron Eason.

Cr Eason said pushing events was a focus for council, not just in Beaufort but the entire shire.

"It is an attraction-based system at the moment, trying to get various things happening," he said.

"We had Beaufort on the Lake in January, which was well attended. We're putting in an application for funds to do up the Beaufort Caravan Park. Next week, we've got the Beaufort Market.

"Things are progressively being done, I wouldn't say weekly, but every week or two, there's something on the calendar somewhere in the shire and Beaufort's a critical part of that, so it gets its share of attractions to draw people to it."

IN OTHER NEWS:

Beaufort Golf and Bowls Club events organising committee member Heather McCracken said the Brass in the Grass event had a terrific response.

"It was very good. The vendors had a great day, I believe. I spoke to all of them this morning for some feedback, that was terrific," she said.

"The band was awesome, the Maryborough Traditional Jazz Ensemble, they were wonderful performers, they were on for two hours, but the day was just beautiful, the weather was awesome and, really, everybody who came thought it was fantastic.

"I just thought our numbers were down because of all the other events on around the district. There's so much on, you just can't complete almost."

Ms McCracken said Beaufort needed to become a destination before the bypass is constructed to prevent a dip in the local economy.

"That's a big focus, to get tourists into the town and events certainly achieve that. I think, definitely, the town needs to push along those lines," she said.

"The town needs to become a destination before that actually happens so that it doesn't have that big dip in the local economy when the bypass does happen. I can see the sense in having events here and getting recognised for having events.

"People need to have a reason to come here and we have to create that reason."

Cr Eason said council was waiting on the environment effects statement to get an understanding of the final decisions on the bypass project and was supporting potential events to keep Beaufort as an attraction.

"It is something on the council's agenda that we have to consider the bypass. My understanding is the Minister has given his approval for it to come out but I don't believe it is actually out yet. We're waiting for that to happen to get an understanding of what they've finally decided and we'll put in submissions about that," he said.

"It's part of our process as council to be keeping an eye on that because once the bypass goes in, we need to attract people into Beaufort. It's not just a case of the bypass has gone past, see you later, we need to be able to attract people off the road into Beaufort and have reasons to do that.

"We're supporting things that are happening. We've got good facilities in Beaufort, we're trying to improve them, but each individual business within Beaufort has to look at where they can go and what they can do to improve Beaufort as an attraction for people to stop and come and have a look at it."

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.