Lal Lal rail station returning to its former glory

Lal Lal railway station is getting a new lease on life - and almost two years after a $700,000 funding announcement, contractors got stuck into the exterior on Monday.

Committee member Sue Witherspoon said the 'Lal Lal Community Hub' was due to open in June 2023 - and would act as a gallery and meeting space during the week - and a tourist information centre on weekends.

"I was thrilled that we finally got this up and happening," she said.

"On Monday there were 10 workers at the site.

"It's all positive and it's all happening. I'm excited."

Ms Witherspoon said the verandah over the station platform had been removed, while the toilet block roof had been replaced - and the slate roof over the main building had been repaired and the building treated for termites.

"While the Lal Lal station looks very different to the one at Little River, they are both from the same era and made of bluestone, which is rare in station construction now," she said.

"We caught up with the group at Little River recently and it's been lovely touching base with them.

"Theirs is still an active passenger station (on the Geelong-Melbourne line) but they have faced all the same battles we have in getting grants and getting things done."

Ms Witherspoon said the group narrowly missed out on a grant several years ago - but were encouraged to try again, gaining the money they needed in early 2021.

"We've been really lucky that it's escaped any demolition, fires or serious vandalism," she said.

"Once the exterior is fixed up, work will begin on the inside in early 2023."

That will include a kitchenette, accessible modern toilets, gallery and two upstairs meeting rooms.

Ms Witherspoon said that In the past, organisations that wanted to use the town as a base - like the Lal Lal Windfarm - were instead forced to go to Buninyong or Ballarat.

Regular users groups will include the local historical society, Landcare, photography group, Lal Lal Primary School and Lal Lal Falls Advisory Committee.

She said the new tourism information centre would hopefully capitalise on nearby events such as the RoadNats, Ballarat Heritage Festival and events at Kryal Castle.

"If there are things we can tap into, let's rally," she said.

"We'll be needing volunteers for the centre as well."

So could we be seeing passenger trains pull up at the platform soon?

"They have to put a fence in at the edge of the platform as part of these works," she said.

"At the moment the steam trains that visit for the heritage festival stop in Lal Lal but not actually at the platform where anyone can get off.

"We'll focus on the building first - and we'll work on that one later."

It was constructed a year after the line opened in 1862 - and was one of several almost-identical stations along the line including Yendon (demolished 1968) and privately-owned structures at Meredith, Moorabool and Bannockburn.

The now-freight-only track was the first built outside the metro area and the search for a million pounds to make it happen began in 1854.

The line was surveyed in 1858 and opened four years later with two sets of tracks along the entire route. One set was pulled up north of Bannockburn in 1934.

Right up until 1889, travelling via Geelong was the only way to get from Melbourne to Ballarat by train.

It closed to passenger trains in 1978 and was still used as an alternative to the Ballarat-Melbourne line up until the 1990s.

The line is still occasionally used to take empty Vline trains to Ballarat at flowers-than-normal speed for maintenance.

In 2010 the Baillieu Government promised to look into the viability of reopening the Ballarat-Geelong rail line to passenger trains and repairing disused stations.

The election promise helped secure an Upper House seat for the National Party in Western Victoria.

A 2013 consultants report revealed that reinstating the line from Geelong to Ballarat, Maryborough, Castlemaine and Bendigo would cost $935 million including track duplication.

In the lead up to the 2022 election, the coalition promised to return passenger trains to the Geelong-Bannockburn section of the line - prompting a push for the return of the entire line.

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