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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-06-20 Daily Xml
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Adelaide to Melbourne Bike Trail

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:16): Supplementary arising from the answer: what is the funding allocated to the South Australian portion of the bike track, and if the Victorians don't provide funding, will South Australia consider funding that also?

The PRESIDENT: It doesn't arise out of the original answer. Minister, do you wish to answer?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:16): I will answer it. I will give the honourable member an answer.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: My latitude doesn't normally go that far.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: You can tell I am a cyclist, just waiting to burst out of my skin and start cycling.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The minister is keen to answer your question, Leader of the Opposition.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: As the honourable member would be aware, our election commitment was half a million dollars to do the planning study, to do the route and to work out what assets need to be invested in and what already exists. Clearly, if you think about it, we have a cycle trail along Linear Park, out to the beach, and the coastal trail goes nearly 70 kilometres. There are parts of the trail that go along the Southern Expressway. There is already one through McLaren Vale and the old railway line. There are some down across from Victor Harbor across to Goolwa.

So there are already some assets right through to Mount Gambier. The idea of the half a million dollars was to look at the assets that already exist, look at what needs to be done. Clearly, we have made it a commitment that we would like to ride across the barrages. I think riding across the mouth of one of the world's great rivers would be truly an international opportunity, from a tourism point of view.

I can see the former minister for SA Water over there sort of grimacing. Well, we have a different approach. You can drive four-wheel drives across it, the landowners either side who own the land drive across it, so I am sure we can come up with some arrangement to actually get cycle access to those barrages. Then, of course, there are parts of that track that will need some investment in just a little bit of all-weather paving.

It is actually quite interesting. What we have committed to is the half a million dollars to actually have a look at all of those things. To come up with the actual route, we need to negotiate with—not negotiate, consult, because, as a good example, if you get to Kingston, you could take the old, disused rail corridor from Kingston through Lucindale into Naracoorte and down the rail corridor from Naracoorte to Penola, through Coonawarra, through to Penola to Mount Gambier, or you could go around the coast to Robe and Beachport, but once you get to Beachport there is a disused rail corridor into Mount Gambier. As several of the honourable members from the South-East would know, that corridor still exists.

In the end, for the honourable member's benefit, what we would do is spend that half a million dollars looking at what assets are needed, talking to the community about what the best routes are and then we will come up with a long-term implementation plan.

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