In Ballarat, several candidates have put their hands up to challenge incumbent Labor MP Catherine King.

In order, they are the Greens' John Barnes, the Liberal Party's Ben Green, independent Alex Graham, Kerryn Sedgman, the United Australia Party's Terri Pryse-Smith, Rosalie Taxis, the Liberal Democrat's Julia McGrath, and Catherine King.

This year, the AEC will be operating out of Alfredton, with secure facilities and computer systems for ballot counting and training workers.

The federal election will be held on May 21 - that's the day with the democracy sausages - but early polling to begin on May 8.

Pre-polling locations are expected to be announced soon on the AEC website, as well as polling places for election day.

Applications for postal votes close May 18 at 6pm.

It's now too late to enrol on the electoral roll, which closed on Monday.

While a number of candidates have launched their campaigns, the City of Ballarat is still waiting for announcements on its major infrastructure priorities like the Ballarat Link Road stage two.

Speaking on Friday, mayor Daniel Moloney said it was still early in the process, and he was confident all candidates would have a good understanding of what council is requesting, particularly after the release of council's election priority document and the launch of Ballarat Now and Into the Future 2022.

"We'd rather have really good, strong, informed debate with people who are aware of our priorities rather than having others second-guess them," he said.

"It's still early days in the campaign, we're quietly hopeful we've made a really strong case to all political persuasions to make sure that Ballarat gets heard, and Ballarat gets the funding and infrastructure it does need for a growing city population."

After the Coalition matched Labor's commitment to upgrade the Sebastopol Senior Citizens Centre earlier this week, Catherine King announced $1.89 million for work along the Yarrowee Creek on Friday, another of council's priority projects.

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Ms King said she looked forward to "respectful debates" in the campaign.

Friends of the Canadian Corridor's Jeff Rootes said the funding announcement, for weed control, silt and litter management, revegetation, increased canopy trees, and water treatment capacity, will help restore biodiversity along the rivers and creeks in the city.

"The (work) has been going for 40-odd years, in spits and sparts, but this is another installment - just two years ago, the city brought out a new masterplan, and this fits right into that," he said.

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