By Derek Schlennstedt
The popular Puffing Billy Railway is steaming ahead with the Andrews Labor Government announcing a funding boost of $8.2 million on Friday 10 November.
Minister for Tourism and Major Events John Eren joined Monbulk MP James Merlino at the Belgrave Puffing Billy Railway Station to announce the funding boost which will be used to improve facilities and create a new Discovery Centre at Emerald Lake Park’s Lakeside Station.
“Some 487,000 tourists come to this great location to be part of this wonderful attraction and of that 60 per cent are from international visitation.
“That’s a tremendous boost to our economy. I don’t think any attraction in Victoria has that amount of international tourists that come specifically to visit a location like Puffing Billy,” Mr Eren said.
“We know you are running at capacity and know that you need to grow.
“I know that you have an ambitious plan over the next 10 years to grow this to over 700,000 visitors – we want to help you do it as a government.”
With the existing network stretched to maximum capacity, the works are vital to cater for the growing demand of international tourists.
The Discovery Centre at Lakeside will improve services and John Robinson, CEO of Puffing Billy, said it would also help to disperse the capacity to the entire railway – the journey from Lakeside to Gembrook being the less popular option for visitors.
“One of the significant reasons behind the requirement for the Discovery Centre at Emerald Lake Park will be the fact that it will be an all-weather venue and give a significant lift in visitor experience.
“Just as importantly, it will be a kick-off point for the second half of the railway,” Mr Robinson said.
“Despite the enormous numbers we are carrying, the second half of the railway from Lakeside to Gembrook is still fairly lightly patronised.
“This Discovery Centre will be a major, major boost to our attempts to grow our business into the future.
“Simplistically, what we will be able to do is to concurrently run return trains from here to Lakeside and return at the same time as we can be running return trips from Lakeside to Gembrook and return.”
Construction of the Discovery Centre is expected to commence before the end of 2018 and be completed by late 2020.
