Concern over Comm Games legacy

POLITICIANS and community members gathered a Mars Stadium this week urging the State Government to reconsider legacy options for the Commonwealth Games, including a train station at Mars Stadium.

Shadow minister for the Commonwealth Games, David Southwick, was joined fellow Liberal MPs Joe McCracken and Bevery McArthur to call for the infrastructure.

“The Commonwealth games is not just about a 10-day sporting event, it’s about an important legacy that’s left behind,” said Mr Southwick.

As part of his visit to Ballarat Mr Southwick announced the launch of a webpage to push for the train station – buildtheplatform.com.au and urged residents to visit the site to help ensure a new platform gets build opposite Mars Stadium.

“There’s legacy opportunities right at our front door here at Mars Stadium with the duplication of Creswick Road and importantly the events platform,” said Mr Southwick.

“That events platform is not just about the Commonwealth Games, it’s not just about sport, the AFL and all the events at Mars Stadium, it’s about ensuring that as populations start to grow in the north, we’ve got that station here to be able to accommodate them.”

Also at the Creswick Road event was Commerce Ballarat CEO Jodie Gillett, Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society committee member Geoffrey Norman, Committee for Ballarat CEO Michael Poulton.

Ms Gillett expressed concern about what will happen if a train platform is not built.

“Two weeks for an event is not what we’re looking for to leave behind,” she said. “We have to have legacy and the platform will give us the opportunity to hold a lot of other sporting events and music events at the stadium to see it bringing tourists to town on going.

“Reality also has to come in, we’ve got 30,000 people per session, how do we transport them without a platform here?”

A spokesperson for the State Government said that a transport strategy is currently being developed and will include rail, road, and bus options, however, a new platform is not possible in the time frame.

“We have delivered significant investments in transport for the Ballarat community, with an extra 135 V/Line services running every week,” the spokesperson said.

“We’re also investing $50 million to upgrade Ballarat’s historic train station, improving accessibility and capacity at the heritage listed site ahead of the Commonwealth Games.”

Mr Southwick rejected the idea that there wasn’t enough time to build a platform.

“Jacinta Allan and the Labor Government says that they’ve run out of time, but we know just up the road at Wendouree Station it took 13 months to build that platform,” he said.

“If they can do Wendouree Station in 13 months, they can do this in just under three years.”