Deniliquin Pastoral Times

Around the re­gion: Maude Rd fund­ing

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Can­celled again

The COVID-19 pan­demic has claimed an­other ca­su­alty with the de­ci­sion al­ready made to can­cel the Echuca-Moama New Year’s Eve event.

Organisers said they made the tough de­ci­sion to en­sure the health and safety of the com­mu­nity amid the pan­demic.

It will be the sec­ond year in a row the event has not been held, with the 2019 event can­celled due to con­cerns around a to­tal fire ban.

Echuca’s New Year’s Eve cel­e­bra­tions were held in 2017 and 2018, the event be­ing a cul­mi­na­tion of work by com­mu­nity groups in the area to cre­ate a fam­ily-friendly cel­e­bra­tion at Aquatic Re­serve. Com­mon­wealth fund­ing has ben al­lo­cated to im­prove safety for heavy ve­hi­cles and mo­torists trav­el­ling along the main route link­ing the western area of Ed­ward River and Hay Shire LGAs.

Fed­eral Mem­ber for Far­rer Sus­san Ley said a $792,000 fed­eral con­tri­bu­tion will help fund a $2.9m 7km up­grade of Maude Road on the edge of Ed­ward River’s bound­ary with Hay Shire.

Un­veiled as part of $9 mil­lion in new road and bridge fund­ing in Far­rer, the work is in ad­di­tion to the con­struc­tion of a re­place­ment cross­ing over Nim­mie Creek, just south of Maude town­ship.

‘‘The tim­ing of these projects couldn’t be bet­ter and al­lows the lo­cal coun­cils to fast-track their high­est­pri­or­ity in­fras­truc­ture projects, pro­vid­ing lo­cal jobs and boost­ing the econ­omy, while build safer bridges and trans­port routes through Far­rer,’’ Ms Ley said

Fish­ways progress

Works on the Co­huna Weir and Koon­drook fish­ways are not far away from start­ing.

Goul­burn-Mur­ray Wa­ter has con­firmed it will start early works in com­ing weeks, once pre­lim­i­nary in­spec­tions and in­ves­ti­ga­tions are com­pleted at two Gun­bower Creek sites.

The fish­ways will al­low up­stream and down­stream pas­sages of na­tive fish by con­nect­ing the length of Gun­bower Creek be­tween Koon­drook Weir and the Na­tional Chan­nel In­let Reg­u­la­tor.

Ten­ders went out in Septem­ber, and it is ex­pected con­tracts will be awarded in De­cem­ber and works will be­gin early next year.

Build­ing of the Koon­drook and Co­huna fish­ways is planned for Fe­bru­ary to Oc­to­ber 2021, with the ma­jor­ity of works be­ing un­der­taken dur­ing the ir­ri­ga­tion sea­son shut­down from May 15 to Au­gust 15, 2021.

The works will re­sult in a draw­down of the weir pool dur­ing the shut­down pe­riod and G-MW will aim to min­imise the aes­thetic im­pact on the lo­cal com­mu­nity.

Rail up­grades

Stage one of the $356 mil­lion Shepparton rail line up­grade is com­plete, with stage two ex­pected to start soon.

Stage one saw 10 ex­tra ser­vices a week be­tween Mel­bourne and Shepparton along with 29 ex­tra coach ser­vices, while the sec­ond stage will al­low new V/Line trains to travel to and from Shepparton for the first time.

Stage two will also see plat­form ex­ten­sions at Mooroopna, Murchi­son East and Nagam­bie to suit the new VLoc­ity trains, with 59 level cross­ing up­grades be­tween Shepparton and Don­ny­brook.

Once com­plete, there will be nine re­turn ser­vices a day be­tween Shepparton and Mel­bourne, with trains trav­el­ling at higher speeds.

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