The federal election will be called any day now, ahead of a poll on May 21 at the latest, and with the state election to follow in November, councils are making sure their priorities are heard before the promises really get started.
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Echoing colleagues from Moorabool, Golden Plains, and Pyrenees around Ballarat, Hepburn Shire Council mayor Tim Drylie said there are a number of projects in communities large and small that need extra funding.
The priorities, however, are support for a more sustainable shire, and for housing affordability, both pressing issues for residents in Hepburn.
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"I would like to see a much stronger focus on sustainability and environment, and in particular circular economies," Cr Drylie said.
"That's partly coming out of our (to be launched) Sustainable Hepburn strategy, but
It's the top focus area, coming out of our community plan and community engagement around that."
He also pointed to the state government's $5 billion Big Build housing project overlooking Hepburn Shire, at least so far.
"There's quite an emergency situation developing for a lot of local people, in terms of not being able to find rentals, and working in the town where they live, they're being forced out of towns to some extent," he said.
"We want to tap into the Big Build project through the state government, which we haven't, at this point, been able to access, but also to continue to develop our own priorities there, we'll have a strategy we'll roll out this year about how we'll fund and implement it down the track."
In terms of infrastructure, Cr Drylie said more support for the road network was desperately needed, as well as creating new opportunities with rail trails.
Work has begun on the Hammon Park Trailhead in Creswick, for example, but further funding will be needed to create a world-class mountain biking facility.
"It's got $2.1m of funding already, but there's a significant shortfall for the Creswick Trails development side, we're advocating for $2.68m," he said.
"The trail network's a really important project, and there's also the Daylesford to Hanging Rock rail trail, that's in the planning and design stage, so we're looking for $1.5m to continue that - it'd be a collaboration with Macedon Ranges Shire, the state government encourage those neighbour partnerships.
"We'd predict we'd see a significant increase in visitors using the trail and opportunities for new businesses like farmgate sales, so it ticks a lot of boxes for us."
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The shire has also had to recover from two significant natural disasters in the past 12 months, with a massive storm in June and flooding in January - Cr Drylie said long-term strategies were being worked on to see what can be improved, but money for feasibility studies would be welcomed.
"Particularly in Creswick, we need support for the community in the next couple of years through their recovery process," he said.
"We've seen a significant amount of disaster relief money coming through to this point, but there is a bit of a gap for ongoing community support that we'd love to see closed."
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