Many hands finish rail trail

Grampians Rail Trail leaders are celebrating completing the 11-kilometre asset after finalising track surfacing and flood-mitigation works.

The works were funded through the 2019 Bulgana Green Power Hub Community Grants Program.

Friends of Grampians Rail Trail project manager John Pye said the Lake Lonsdale end of the trail was subject to flooding during heavy and sustained rain events, where it passed through a wetland.

He said pipes and a floodway would divert floodwater, while the resurfacing of this section of the track had repaired past water damage.

“This is the last piece in the jigsaw that provides bicycle and walking access along the whole 11-kilometre track,” Mr Pye said.

The Grampians Rail Trail follows the historic Heatherlie Rail Line that was used from 1882 to 1949 to transport sandstone from

Heatherlie Quarry in the Grampians to Stawell, for historic buildings such as the court house, and on to Melbourne for public buildings such as Parliament House and the State Library.

Powercor granted $38,000 to Stawell Secondary College to start the project, with year-nine students constructing most of the trail. Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning, VCAL, and other students also assisted.

From 2002 to 2012, more than 350 students were involved in the project, led by Mr Pye, who taught at the college.

“Students organised permits, employed and supervised contractors, and built four bridges – including a 16-metre single span steel bridge and an 80-metre boardwalk bridge across a swamp,” Mr Pye said.

“Students worked in small groups, ran the program, made decisions on how and where money was spent and did the onground work. It became the focus of research projects and among many accolades won a Worksafe Award.

“From $78,000 in grants, the students have constructed a trail valued in excess of $500,000.”

Mr Pye said after he retired from the college in 2012, progress on the trail was ‘held up by how the trail would be managed and by whom’.

“Management and licensing remained a ‘road-block’ for many years until a community group, Friends of Grampians Rail Trail, took on the task,” he said.

“This will be the only rail trail in Victoria to be entirely managed, maintained, licensed and developed by a community group – we are unique.”

Mr Pye said people could access trail maps online at www. railtrails.org.au, by following links to Grampians Rail Trail.