At the recent Snowy Monaro Extraordinary Council Meeting held in the Cooma, Councillors discussed whether Snowy Monaro Regional Council would lodge an application for funding with the Commonwealth Building Better Regions funding program for the Monaro Rail Trail.

There was much discussion around committing to an application to support the growth of tourism in the region, through to concerns on the financial aspects of the application and the impact on community given Council’s current financial status.

The Building Better Regions Fund Round Five is for grants from $20,000 to $10 million with the applicant required to fund a 50% co-contribution for project delivery costs.

The tourism stream supports investment ready projects that provide economic and social benefits for regional and remote areas.

For round five, there is a total of $200 million available, with $100 million dedicated to tourism-related infrastructure projects. The Infrastructure Projects Stream only supports investment ready projects.

As a result of the meeting, Council resolved the following to:

A. Not lodge an application under the current Building Better Regions Fund due to:

(a) The project not being sufficiently developed to meet the grant criteria.

(b) The Council not having in place the required consultations with the community on the willingness to fund the service.

B. Establish a Section 355 Management Committee to oversight the development the Monaro Rail Trail and invite representatives from MRT Inc. and Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council to participate.

C. Enter into negotiations with the NSW Government on the proposed lease of the rail corridor.

D. Ensure the Monaro Rail Trail is included as part of the Regional Trails Masterplan and the recommendations of the Regional Trails Masterplan are communicated to MRT Inc. in a timely fashion.

E. Establish a management framework for all trails in the SMRC area, as recommended by the Regional Trails Masterplan, which will incorporate the Monaro Rail Trail.

F. Continue to review grant funding opportunities to support the progression of the Monaro Rail Trail through the detailed design stage.

In the neighbouring Snowy Valleys Council area, the Tumbarumba to Rosewood rail trail has been a success. But this is a vastly different trail to the Monaro Rail with Tumbarumba to Rosewood offering a much shorter 22km trail on easy gradient.

This trail was also a test pilot for NSW with the NSW government tipping in $5 million dollars to fund the project. Much of the work to make the trail look attractive has been completed by volunteers.

The Monaro Rail Trail being much longer in length will come at a large cost to Snowy Monaro Regional Council plus there would be hefty ongoing maintenance expenses.

Council would want to have all the boxes ticked to ensure it would be feasible and sustainable, plus more importantly not an ongoing drain on finances that would need to be dedicated to the project which are currently not there. During March, council are conducting trail masterplan community sessions and it will be interesting to see what the community think of proceeding with the Monaro Rail Trail.