Lesley Hewitt
At the start of this Council term there are some big challenges facing both Councillors and the community. How do we make $4m savings and continue to set the Shire up for the future? These will be key considerations of the next four-year Council plan. EOI’s for the Deliberative community panel closed this week and I look forward to hearing the outcome of the panel’s work.
As you will have seen the Daylesford Town Hall is undergoing essential maintenance – a new roof and electrical rewiring. This essential maintenance has been budgeted. Meanwhile the Town Hall Project Advisory Group has been working on conceptual plans for community facilities in the Town Hall and these are ready for the first stage of community feedback. This will be happening during March. Look out for the conceptual plans and the various feedback sessions when the dates and venues are published on Council’s Facebook page and social media. This stage of the process has been budgeted but further work will be dependent on obtaining grant funding.
The Daylesford Town Hall is a magnificent historical building that was able to be built due to the wealth generated by mining, agriculture and timber in the 1800s. It leads me to think about what will our community wealth and economy be based on into the future. In the 1900s mining was no longer a major pillar in our economy. Our key drivers at this time were agriculture, timber and tourism, based on our natural environment – mineral water. Now it’s still agriculture and tourism. Is that enough? Will that sustain future generations
Last week I attended a regional forum in Ararat that considered these issues. There are 11 LGAs that make up the Grampians regional grouping – Hepburn Shire is one of these. There are areas that are amongst the fastest growing in the State – Moorabool, Ballarat and Golden Plains – but others only have limited growth and some are the poorest parts of the state. The Grampians region group has identified economic drivers as mining of critical minerals, the renewable energy transition, agriculture and advanced manufacturing. What will our economic drivers be in Hepburn? Agriculture, tourism and…? What infrastructure do we need to plan for now to ensure this? Transport options, digital connectivity, water, biodiversity and environmental protection, service provision (health, education), industrial land – you can see the big picture thinking that’s needed from all of us.
And finally our International Women’s Day event will be held on 5th March at the Mechanics Trentham. Details are at Women’s Honour Roll Hepburn Shire Council Five women will be inducted onto our Women’s Honour Roll, now celebrating it’s 20th year. Our guest speaker will be Shae Graham, an Australian Paralympian and Heather Mutimer, a former Councillor and Mayor after whom the Honour Roll is named. Bus transport will be provided from Daylesford and Creswick. Details are at the link above. Hope to see you there.
Cr Lesley Hewitt is a Daylesford resident and an elected councillor for Hepburn Shire.
Councillor Columns are a regular feature in The Wombat Post. We offer this space as an information channel from Council to the community. Councillor Columns are not subject to editorial review by our editorial committee but are published as we receive them from our elected Councillors.
