The Koroit community will be able to put to even greater use its historic railway station precinct with news funding has been confirmed to sign off on a major project.
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At their July meeting on Tuesday, Moyne Shire councillors allocated the latest round of the community assistance fund.
This allocation included $22,000 for the Port Fairy to Warrnambool Rail Trail Committee of Management.
This money is the final installment of the funding needed to build a community barbecue area at the Koroit Railway Station.
The $22,000 from council will be added to contributions of $40,000 by the Koroit Lions Club, $30,000 from South West Community Foundation Koroit Sub Fund and a further $19,000 from the federal government and philanthropic sources.
Port Fairy to Warrnambool Rail Trail Committee of Management secretary Ian Bodycoat said the tick of funding approval from council was the final hurdle to leap to get the project up and running.
"It's fantastic news to have Moyne on board," Mr Bodycoat said.
"It adds another very important partner to the project to help make it happen for the Koroit community and all users of the rail trail."
Mr Bodycoat said the new barbecue area would include a double barbecue unit and two sets of tables and chairs.
It will be housed by an undercover area, which will be built in keeping with the railway theme of the area.
"Now we have the money from council we can start work and the first step will be to engage an architect to get the design right," Mr Bodycoat said.
"One of the first tasks will also be upgrading the power supply to the station area.
"This will obviously be needed for the barbecue area but it will also be a valuable upgrade for other users of the station to tap into."
The funding allocation from Moyne Shire announced this week provided a happy ending to what has been a long and drawn out battle to get a barbecue area established at the Koroit Railway Station.
In 2017, the Koroit Lions Club had committed $40,000 from their coffers to construct a solar-driven barbecue area at the station.
The club had also gained financial commitments from a number of other funding sources. But the project was brought to a halt when an application to council was rejected.
Moyne Shire told the club the maintenance on the solar barbecue would be too great and therefore not cost efficient, hence the rejection of the project.
With solar off the table, the Lions club and the rail trail committee of management gathered themselves and decided the barbecue project was to good to shelve permanently and began to plan the current project.
Koroit Lion Club member John Featherby said the end product would prove it was worth the persistence.
"It will be a wonderful asset, the station is such a well-used area and this will add to it," Mr Featherby said.
