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St. Arnaud, Charlton, Wedderburn & Surrounding Districts
Est. 1864
18 Napier Street, St. Arnaud. 3478. - Advertising & Editorial Material - Ph.: (03) 5495 1055; Fax.: (03) 5495 1937. Email: ncn@iinet.net.au Published weekly. Registered by Australia Post, Publication No. VAC 4217.
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WEDNESDAY AUGUST 14th 2024.
Circulating in:- St. Arnaud, Charlton, Donald, Rupanyup, Bealiba, Stawell, Marnoo, Navarre, Dunolly, Wycheproof, Wedderburn, Birchip, Korong Vale, Stuart Mill, Redbank, Avoca & Moonambel.
(Incl. GST)
Red tape puts a halt to St. Arnaud’s tourism hopes for Vinelander market
THERE is sad news out of the Raillery Hub this week that the Vinelander, the tourist train due to ‘stop’ in St. Arnaud next Friday 16th August will now not stop giving a massive blow to tourism in this town. The Vinelander is the first standardised gauge passenger train to travel to Mildura, returning trains to the historic city and a sense of empowerment to the towns along the route of the train that are hoping to developtourism from the train’s journey The Vinelander, on its epic slow rail journey passed through St. Arnaud on its way to Mildura in June and due to an unscheduled delay at Emu it became necessary to move from a slow rail journey to one that was considerably faster. Blink and you would have missed it, but some caught it and it was featured in North Central News. Since that date the good people of the Raillery Hub have been working hard with an event planned to knock the socks off passengers if the train stopped at St. Arnaud. Their work was with a view to enhance the reach of tourism for this district. News of the disappointing outcome to
Express
the work was communicated by Seven-O-Seven Operations Inc. who are marketed as a ‘moving museum celebrating our rail heritage’.
VLine’s standardized gauge The process when VLine standardized the gauge is complex but basically the only trains thought (by VLine) to use the St. Arnaud track were grain trains and there the problem lies. In order for a passenger train to stop in St. Arnaud there would be a need for signaling to be reconfigured or for a VLine employee to be actively in control of the signals and in St. Arnaud on that day.
Vinelander marketing Vinelander is owned by Seven-O-Seven, an all-volunteer staffed non-profit group of dedicated enthusiasts who restore and operate a collection of historic locomotives
and rollingstock from Victorian, South Australian and New South Wales Government Railways. Seven-0-Seven Operations is dedicated to sharing Victoria's rail heritage with Victorians across the state and as such they offer several opportunities to experience the museum to those living in the regions they visit. Travel short segments of regional Victorian lines that have not seen passenger trains in a generation. The draw card of the Vinelander is that it is designed to feature the
Silo Art of the Mallee. Publicity for next Friday on the Vinelander is still that the train will provide a ‘brief fresh air stop’ in St. Arnaud ‘where a number of community events are planned, including a morning tea’.
Raillery Hub plans The community events were a comprehensive plan by the Raillery Hub to entertain train travelers from Maryborough to St. Arnaud on the train with tourism videos and a ‘rail inspector’ in full ‘old’ station-master costume.
Above: The Vinelander train, passing through St. Arnaud in June - this Friday to be only an ‘express train’. These will now not happen as VLine has rebuffed the plan.
VLine’s role It seems when VLine put through the rail that in order for the rail to take a passenger train rather than grain trains that VLine decided would be the only train on the line, that the signals would require reconfiguring in order that the train stops at St. Arnaud.
Traffic management plans It seems that for the train to stop for anything other than 4 minutes and if the signals cannot be reconfigured then
another option would be to entail traffic management plans. However for the two crossings controlled by VicRoads (Sunraysia Highway and Navarre Road) meant the plans could not be completed in time for the trip at best and in all likelihood may take years to complete.
Assistance from Council The Northern Grampians Shire Council has been extremely helpful and promised to provide the traffic management plans for the other two crossings in St. Arnaud (Millett Street and Howitt Street).
Ridley’s Agriproducts who were very generously going to make extenuating plans for the event to go ahead.
Waving the train through The invitation stands for anyone in the community who wishes to wave the train through St. Arnaud station to do so. The gallery at the Raillery Hub will be open to accommodate. Work will continue in the hope that with the next Vinelander travel tour in November that progress can be made to have the train stop in St. Arnaud and enjoy the delights of tourism in this district.
St. Arnaud spends over a million dollars on gambling this year THE Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) has released their player loss information for Victoria for the 2023 / 2024 year.
Kidney Kar Rally travels to St. Arnaud Above: On the ‘starting grid’ of Lord Nelson Park on Friday afternoon, 35 Kidney Kars did a lap around the trotting track in aid of kids and young people affected by kidney disease before they headed off to Echuca. - Story on page 2.
The amount spent at the St. Arnaud Sporting Club on gambling is down as are many of the regional clubs in Victoria. The staggering amount expended at the St. Arnaud Sporting club for this financial year was $1,626,067 which is a drop from
the previous year of $1, 684,336. As would have been expected the amount spent on gambling at hotels and sporting clubs has fallen greater in regional areas than in metropolitan Melbourne. There are some anomalies however,
with regional centres such as Benalla, Colac, Daylesford and Rye with higher gambling expenditure than the year previous. Expenditure from gambling was lower also in the regions of Bendigo, Ballarat, Maryborough, Stawell and Mildura.