Victor Harbor Mainstreet Precinct

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:54): I rise to talk about the Mainstreet upgrade that will be occurring in Victor Harbor over the next few months. This is stage 4 of an upgrade that has been going on over the last four or five years. This next stage is the development from Coral Street through to Albert Place. For those who know the area, that is from the Grosvenor down to the Crown. This is the main hub of the activity in the Mainstreet.

In this part of the street we have Sportspower, multiple coffee shops, Victa Cinema, a men's hair salon—not a place I frequent very often—Sinclair Florist, an op shop, a couple of banks, a sweet store, shoe stores, a music shop selling old records, a homeware store, a bakery, and Subway. There are also a few of the old-timers in the street: the original fish and chip shop, the Avondale Deli and the Tonkins Sports Store. These businesses are certainly going to need the community's support over the next six months. As we get towards the end of May, the council will be closing the street to vehicle access while the works are being done.

These are very extensive works that involve ripping up the existing pavements, redoing stormwater structures underneath and getting this area beautified and fitting in with the other stages that have already been done. Over $3.3 million of government money has been put into this stage 4 project by the Marshall Liberal government. This is a fantastic project to beautify that end of the street and will fit in with work that has been done elsewhere. The first stage, which was done quite a number of years ago, was the intersection of Coral Street and Ocean Street, and then the northern end of the street was done as stage 2. Stage 3 was Coral Street itself, which was the street that intersected Ocean Street.

In more recent years, we have also seen the development of Railway Terrace, which is the next street over towards the sea, back towards the railway station. The state government put about $2½ million into that project as part of stimulus funding in relation to COVID. Council did a fantastic job of upgrading Railway Terrace into a very usable, friendly place. This is some great work they have been doing in this area. This certainly continues that work, and we look forward to seeing it completed.

I am just making people aware that from the end of May through to September there are going to be major disruptions in this area, particularly for vehicle traffic, and also at Albert Place, which is the area that runs past the Crown and Subway and Nino's pizzeria on the other side. They are great establishments. It will be putting in lovely alfresco dining areas outside places like the Crown and Nino's that will be there for people to benefit from going forward.

I congratulate the Victor Harbor council on the work they are doing and look forward to seeing the outcome. I wish the businesses best of luck. I know some businesses are also taking an opportunity to invest in their businesses at this point in time while other works are going on, and closing for a period while they upgrade their own facilities, so best of luck to them as well. I congratulate all those involved.