"They just don't stop, it's all day."
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Long-time Beaufort resident Sara Kittelty opened her new cafe and cake shop late last year at the Servo@23 craft shop, on the Western Highway.
Speaking to The Courier on a normal Thursday morning, the heavy truck traffic is relentless as they roll into town.
"It's a deterrent to sitting outside and enjoying the weather and the town," she said.
"I think a lot of people stop here on the way between Horsham and Melbourne, or Ballarat and Adelaide, and that stopping will still happen regardless of the bypass."
The Environmental Effects Statement for that bypass, which is expected to be built north of the township, was released for public comment this week - it details exactly what the experts think will happen to Beaufort when it's eventually finished.
In short: there'll be a lot less traffic going through the town, and that means less trucks, but it'll mean a $5 million hit to the currently thriving economy.
The main street - the highway - is dotted with cafes and craft shops, encouraging people to take a break.
Riley Hammond, who's worked at the Pyrenees Pantry at the town's only set of traffic lights for about five years, said "maybe 60 per cent" of the business coming through the doors was from people going from one place to another.
"I think there are definitely pros and cons to the bypass - in the short term, we'll get a lot of road crews and construction workers, that'll be a fair bit of business for the town, and once it's done, you'll have the trucks out of the town, so less noise and pollution," he said.
"But at the same time, those truckies are business for the town, and with a bypass, it won't just be truckies getting time off their trip, it'll be everyday people as well."
He said the town needs to make sure it stays on the map, "advertising and promoting itself".
"There'll be people that won't stop unless you give them a good reason for it," he said.
"(There) will be a loss of some business so we need to keep promoting the town, then the positives should outweigh the negatives."
The Beaufort Progress Association has been fighting hard for years to keep the spotlight on the town, with new and rejuvenated initiatives like a larger market, a museum dedicated to Vegemite, and more emphasis on local artists.
The Association's Sarah Beaumont said there are a range of opinions on the bypass through the town.
"Our primary focus is really to make sure once the bypass goes through - before the bypass goes through - there's enough stuff happening in Beaufort to make sure people come off the freeway for us," she said.
"We believe in the long run it will contribute to making Beaufort a destination, and by working towards that, we hope that Beaufort will benefit."
Once the bypass is complete, there will be a "lull" in the main street, but Ms Beaumont said she was confident it would be a "short-term hit".
"It will wipe out some businesses for sure, but other businesses will come," she said.
"It won't have an impact on other businesses in this part of the world, the agricultural businesses will remain untouched and it may actually benefit them with a better road to get their goods to market, it's just the retail hub in the main street that is going to take the biggest hit."
The town is slowly growing - at the last census, it was about 1500 people - with newcomers finding the small-town feel attractive, as well as its proximity to services.
Steve McWhinney and Lyn Harvey moved to the town from South Australia "about five years ago".
"It has all the facilities, and we have family in the regions and in Melbourne, there's a train service," Ms Harvey said.
"People know it's the place to stop, it's two hours out of Meloburne and there's great coffee here."
"The traffic gets banked up in the holidays, then they learned how to go through the town on the back roads," Mr McWhinney added.
"A lot of the locals here have told me they've been talking about it for years and years - I think (it's a positive), as long as they can come into Beaufort if they want to."
One of those locals who's been talking about it for years is James Allen from Beaufort's Big Garage Sale.
"When I started here, they suggested it might happen very soon, and that was 30 years ago, so now they're saying it's going to happen very soon, so it could be another 20 years," he said.
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"We'll become more of a little town than a highway town, and you'll be able to do things on the highway that you can't do now because you can't talk (over the trucks).
"It's due."
Construction funding has not yet been allocated, and there is no timeframe for when the project might begin.
The EES and draft planning amendments are available to view online and at the Beaufort Library, the Pyrenees Shire Council office in Beaufort, the Regional Roads Victoria office in Wendouree, and the DELWP office on Mair Street in Ballarat.
Public comment, including through the Engage Victoria platform online, closes May 13.
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