The coming months will see a flurry of activity in and around the new Ballarat showgrounds site with roadworks to improve safety and access to the Mount Rowan site and the base of a large new pavilion prepared.
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But it is uncertain whether the Mount Rowan site will be ready before next year's Ballarat Show.
"The show will definitely be there for 2025, but for 2024 we are not sure whether the site will actually be ready (for) the Ballarat Show. It will be really, really tight and it would be good to give the site some time to settle in," said Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society executive officer Keli MacRae.
The society this week confirmed that they had extended their lease to remain at the current Creswick Road showgrounds site until May 31, 2024.
The timeline has been loosened following the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games. A new athletics track and centre, which would have acted as a warm-up facility for the Commonwealth Games athletics at Mars Stadium, will still be built with the state government planning for its completion in 2026.
Ms MacRae said Midland Highway safety upgrade works, including a dedicated turning lane into Rose Hill Rd, would begin this week and Rose Hill Rd itself will be widened and would have a turning lane into the showgrounds.
Drainage works inside the 16.2 hectare site have been completed, internal roads are bridges are almost complete and car parking is next.
Horse yards for the equestrian centre on site will also be moved and new car parking created for users to separate horses from the showgrounds construction projects.
The foundations for the South Pavilion, which will house the Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society offices and a large exhibition space, are expected to be completed before the end of the year.
When finished the pavilion will act as a multi-purpose exhibition centre, hosting the Victorian Sheep Show, being used to house cattle during the Ballarat Show and hired out to external exhibitors and events throughout the year.
While excited at the "hive of activity" at the new Mount Rowan showgrounds, Ms MacRae said the focus was firmly on this year's Ballarat Show which begins in just over three weeks on November 10.
"We've got this year's show and that's where all our attention and focus is," she said.
The extension of use of the Wendouree showgrounds gives the long-running Rotary Sunday market a short-term reprieve as they continue to look for a new location.
Ms MacRae said BAPS would continue to work closely with City of Ballarat to attract events to the community while it remains at Wendouree and once the new showgrounds site once it was operational.
The showgrounds have hosted caravan shows, car shows, circuses, rodeos, festivals and scores of other events and Ms MacRae hoped organisers would continue their relationship with the society at the new venue.
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"We are really committed to making sure we don't lose events ... and our intention is to definitely have those type of events, within reason, out at Mount Rowan. We have different permit conditions out there and we've got neighbours so all those things will be factored into the event strategy which we haven't settled on yet."
One of the early projects in the $20 million Mount Rowan upgrade will be a parkland created near the corner of Creswick Road and Rose Hill Road, funded through the Queen's Jubilee, and scheduled to be completed in November.
"We did a planting last December with (Ballarat MP) Catherine King and that will be finished off with more mature trees and will be named Hollowback Park because the first ever event run by the agricultural society in 1856 was on a property at Mount Hollowback," Ms MacRae said.
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