Ararat Rural City
About this page
Ararat is approximately 200 kilometres northwest of Melbourne with a population of just over 11,000 in the local council area. The town was established in the 1857 gold rush.
What's happening in Ararat
Nov 07 Bicycle Victoria recently spoke with Don Phillips from the Ararat Rural City Council about developments in bike infrastructure for Ararat and the surrounding towns.
Ararat Council is in the fortunate position of already having bike lanes on most main roads in towns. This means Council has been working to improve the links between town centres and the local schools, sporting facilities and residential area. Long term projects include developing better end of trip facilities in order to give bike riders an alternative to driving their cars to town.
The Council has allocated $20,000 for 2007-08 which will be spent on maintenance and upgrades to bike paths. One of the highlights of this is improving some areas of the Cemetery Creek Trail surface from gravel to concrete. This will provide bike riders with a much smoother trip as well as a trail requiring less maintenance.
When broken down to spending per person ($1.66 per person) the bike infrastructure budget compares quite well with outer metropolitan Councils (see BIXE). Bicycle Victoria believes that more money could be well spent continuing the development of routes to schools.
Young local riders have been working with Council and the community in the hope of developing a dedicated bike park where they could build jumps and bike circuits. Click here more information on the bike park.
If you have any suggestions for the Council on possible improvements for bike riders in their area please email them.
Velodrome has been resurfaced
Apr 04 The velodrome used by the Ararat and District Cycling Club has been resurfaced and will give local people a safe, off-road venue to train or just go for a spin on the bike. The club was established in 1975 and has the only Olympic size (250m) velodrome in regional Victoria.