{"id":133393,"date":"2026-07-20T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/?p=133393"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:42:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:42:42","slug":"big-plans-bigger-price-tag-avalon-tops-election-wish-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/news\/big-plans-bigger-price-tag-avalon-tops-election-wish-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Big plans, bigger price tag: Avalon tops election wish list"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A $1 billion funding push to unlock thousands of jobs around Avalon Airport is at the centre of a united election pitch from the region&#8217;s councils ahead of November&#8217;s state election.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal calls from a Regional Infrastructure Fund to help open up the Avalon Employment Precinct through new roads, planning scheme changes, direct rail services between Geelong and Melbourne through Wyndham, and the potential for a rail station at Avalon Airport.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign is being led by advocacy group G21, with mayors from across the region joining forces to secure the funding commitment.<\/p>\n<p>G21 chair and Colac Otway Shire mayor Jason Schram said the investment would create significant opportunities for regional Victoria.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s much-needed infrastructure so it&#8217;s not always borne by a developer and having to wait for that,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/07\/IMG_9854_21807.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Avalon Airport is seeking a $15 million Airline Attraction fund, to be jointly funded by the airport and the Victorian government. Photo: James Taylor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If the state government can invest in the region and in regional Victoria, it&#8217;ll open up so many jobs and opportunities down here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>G21 deputy chair and Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj described the employment precinct as &#8220;the engine room of Victoria&#8221; and said it had the potential to become one of the state&#8217;s most significant industrial and employment hubs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One of the things this region has that Melbourne no longer has is access to land,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got thousands of hectares here that needs to be unlocked for industrial development. There&#8217;ll be tens of thousands of jobs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Borough of Queenscliffe mayor Donnie Grigau said the Regional Infrastructure Fund would also support an expansion in air freight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Freight is a very important part of that economic modelling and it&#8217;s part of the growth we need to see, and that will flow down to not only us [in Queenscliffe] as a small council but also the other G21 councils,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside the infrastructure proposal, G21 is also backing Avalon Airport&#8217;s bid for a $15 million Airline Attraction Fund, to be jointly funded by the airport and the Victorian government.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/07\/IMG_9841_18241.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Colac Otway mayor Jason Schram, Avalon Airport chief executive Ari Suss, Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj and Queenscliffe mayor Donnie Grigau. Photo: James Taylor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The fund would be used to attract and retain airline services, increase passenger and freight movements and accelerate investment in the surrounding employment precinct.<\/p>\n<p>Avalon Airport chief executive Ari Suss said the proposal would help the airport compete with other Australian destinations for new airline services.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Avalon, like any other airport, is contesting for those big international carriers,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We want to attract, whether it&#8217;s Australian carriers or others, to come here and fly through Avalon.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know we&#8217;ve got about six million visitors a year to the Great Ocean Road, and about two million of those visitors also get up to the 12 Apostles. We see ourselves as the gateway to those experiences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;More flights here means more economic value and outcomes for the community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cr Kontelj said the election campaign was the ideal time to secure commitments for projects that would deliver long-term benefits for the region.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll be playing off all the parties, absolutely, and playing to our strengths,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A $1 billion funding push to unlock thousands of jobs around Avalon Airport is at the centre of a united election pitch from the region&#8217;s councils ahead of November&#8217;s state election. The proposal calls from a Regional Infrastructure Fund to help open up the Avalon Employment Precinct through new roads, planning scheme changes, direct rail [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/news\/big-plans-bigger-price-tag-avalon-tops-election-wish-list\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":133397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_section_post":"main_featured","home_featured_section_post":"main_featured","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-133393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Big plans, bigger price tag: Avalon tops election wish list - 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Outside of journalism, James divides his time between barracking for the Cats, chasing his two-year-old daughter around, and posting on Twitter (@notthatjt).","sameAs":["jamespetertaylor","https:\/\/x.com\/@notthatjt"],"url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/author\/jamestaylor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133393"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=133393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}