BASE camp for the 2026 Commonwealth Games has been set up on Geelong's waterfront with no word yet when support hubs in Ballarat and Bendigo will come into play.
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About 50 staff, including Victoria 2026 chief executive officer Jeroen Weimar, are understood to be working in the office.
This comes as an advanced tender notice for Commonwealth Games athletes' villages, including the Delacombe site for Ballarat, has been made with tenders likely to open late next month.
Development Victoria has already this month made a similar move on soil remediation works at the proposed Delacombe site, the former Ballarat saleyards, with tenders likely to be awarded by mid-next year.
The Victorian government is yet to divulge further details on the expansion at Ballarat's Mars Stadium, which will house the Games' track and field program, or other infrastructure upgrades needed around the city.
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Ballarat is also pencilled in to stage boxing at Selkirk Stadium in the events precinct, mountain biking in Creswick and the marathon which, while part of the athletics program, will be run outside Mars Stadium.
There is still no confirmation on whether or how the Games' cycling road race might be held - time trials will be in Shepparton with criterium racing in Gippsland.
Potential for a staged road race has been bandied about and Ballarat has long been billed as the home of Australian road cycling with a long history hosting the national titles, which return to Ballarat and Buninyong in less than three weeks' time.
Advanced notice for the athletes' village in Delacombe reveals nothing new, other than to confirm a mix of permanent and temporary dwellings, the latter to be relocated post-Games. All housing will form a legacy to regional "housing supply, quality and diversity".
Housing in athletes' villages are also to be a mix of one and two-storey places with "potential for small apartment buildings", the Development Victoria notice read.
The site on La Trobe Street is set to house 1800 athletes and officials for the period of the Games.
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In terms of the official Victorian 2026 team, The Courier has only been able to confirm some new Indigenous roles connected to the Games are based in the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation new site on Creswick Road.
Leading the Games, Mr Weimar told Geelong Advertiser it was important for the regional Games be planned and delivered in a regional community. He said this would in turn better allow officials to support regional businesses during the pre-competition phase.
Geelong is set to host eight sports for the Games, including swimming and gymnastics. The city's Kardinia Park stadium, home to its AFL club, will host the Games' closing ceremony. The latest grandstand redevelopment, set to be finished next year, will boost the stadium's capacity to 40,000 fans.
Ballarat's Mars Stadium is touted to expand to a 30,000-fan capacity for the Games with a mix of new permanent and temporary seating. Temporary structures are set to hold 18,000 fans.
Mars Stadium will also feature an international-grade roll-out athletics track and require a new purpose-built athletics warm-up facility in the precinct.
The government has not yet made clear what upgrades, if any, are to be made at Ballarat's biggest indoor stadium next door. Selkirk Stadium, which opened in July 2019, features a 3000-seat showcourt.
The Games are in action in just over three years.
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