Station car park opened

WHILE all the recent attention about car parking in the city has been on the Smarter Parking Plan, 405 free parking spaces for commuters became available on Sunday with little fanfare.

The opening of the new multideck car park within the Ballarat Station precinct signalled the end of phase one of the site’s $32 million redevelopment project.

State member for Wendouree, Julian Addison, said the opening of the new spaces addressed a long-term need.

“For decades parking at the train station has been neglected,” she said.

“It was pretty random, you’d turn up try and find a spot for your car, it was unstructured and very ad-hoc.”

Along with the parking spaces the new structure includes CCTV and highly lit areas, as well as a majority undercover walkway to the station itself.

Micheala Settle, member for Buninyong, was also happy phase one of the station precinct redevelopment was complete.

“I’m really looking forward to not having to steal cap boots while I park my car in the future,” she said. “This is a fantastic addition to Ballarat.”

With the completion of the multilevel car park, construction now moves onto stage two, with the gravel car park on the northside of the goods sheds now closed.

That will see the bluestone sheds turned into a conference and events centre as well as the construction of a serviced apartments, shops, restaurants, a bus interchange and open public space.

Mr Addison said the whole project was much needed.

“This is an important milestone,” she said. “We said to the community that we would deliver 405 car parks and that’s what we’ve done.

“Ballarat is the most beautiful city. We’ve got our heritage buildings and this incredible train station, yet you come out and you see car parks.

“This new plaza is going to transform the area. We’re going to bring more people into the community through the convention centre and the hotel. It’s going to be great for the economy and great for everyone.”