By Dongyun Kwon
Yarra Valley Railway became one of the recipients of a new community grants program by the Victorian Government.
The applications were assessed by a VicTrack panel, and Yarra Valley Railway was successful in getting $10,000 in funding.
Yarra Valley Railway president Brett Morton said the funding would be spent to upgrade the operation of the electricity.
“We have the sights grown and the further away over time,” he said.
“We’ve had to put in a new switchboard because we’ve got a brand new level crossing down there with boom gates.
“We’ve had to take out the old one and reroute the way that the electricity is coming to the site, so basically the grant gives us enough money to run the cables underground to supply the power to the whole site from the new switch box.”
VicTrack makes underused land and buildings available to community organisations through its community leasing program.
It charges groups an affordable rent, which is significantly reduced compared to a commercial rental rate.
“We lease the land from VicTrack at a minimum cost,” Mr Morton said.
“VicTrack put out the interest of the community grants and we applied for it last year.”
Mr Morton said he is excited to get the grant.
“Railway is a big project, we were basically rebuilding it from one end to the other,” he said.
“There is 12 kilometres-track but it’s also the station, it’s the platforms, and we’re doing a total overhaul.”
Yarra Valley Railway runs events at the railway including a night market and the upgrade will help them to run more events.
Public and Active Transport minister Gabrielle Williams said the funding will make a huge difference to the many groups that lease VicTrack land and buildings across the state.
“It will help them to continue to support their communities,” she said.
“I would like to thank everyone who has a community lease with VicTrack for the work they do to preserve our state’s rail history, and to manage buildings and land so they can be used to benefit local communities.”
