Korumburra & Community announcements

At last week’s meeting the Round Table was briefed by the CEO Tim Tamlin, the Director of  Development Services Bryan Sword, and the Coordinator of Major Projects Penni Ellicott; so we left feeling that we had a really good understanding of where Korumburra’s heading in terms of its revitalisation projects. Penni Ellicott spoke specifically about Korumburra’s exciting project up at the railway precinct. The plans are progressing nicely, with the architects about to brief Council on stage one of the project, which incorporates both the heritage-listed railway station and the Hub. A major question at this early stage is the exact siting of the Hub on this large parcel of land, and how the railway station and Hub will link together. Concept plans will be out for public consultation early in the second half of the year, and community input will be vital.

As you know by now, in the middle of February the Council was given the green light to extend the Rail Trail from Leongatha to Korumburra, through the signing of a ‘heads of agreement’ document with VicTrack, enabling the rail trail to proceed once funding is secured.  As the Round Table has stated on previous occasions, whilst it would be fantastic to have a passenger rail once again running through Korumburra, there is zero evidence currently from any level of government that this is likely to occur in the foreseeable future, and hence it is sensible for the Round Table to support what is occurring now, and what will bring great tourism and health benefits to our community, while leaving the rail corridor open for future governments to return rail to our region when they are finally prepared to commit the hundreds of millions to such a project. In the meantime Korumburra will move ahead with this wonderful scenic community-orientated endeavour.

On a totally different topic, we had a brief discussion of South Gippsland Water’s current strategy to find new uses for the reservoirs that are no longer needed to supply our water. We are fortunate to have two KRT members on the reference group helping to make those decisions. One of our new KRT members, Sue Hinton, has recommended to the consultative group that the sport of rowing would be well suited to these reservoirs in the future. Wouldn’t that be fantastic! For more info on what this consultation group is doing, just google ‘Rethinking Reservoirs’ and follow the links.

For anyone wishing to nominate for a two-year term on the Round Table, vacancies arise in June and December and applicants can email korumburraroundtable@gmail.com. We welcome new members, and are delighted with the increasing interest shown by individuals and groups in coming on board. All applications are considered, but preference is given to those who represent a particular community group. Talk to you next month, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook!

Pee-Wee Lewis,

President.

Pee-Wee Lewis