Castlemaine Maryborough Rail Trail gets funding to create feasibility study

The Victorian government's Enabling Tourism Fund will invest $120,000 to create a feasibility study for the future development of the 55 kilometre route.

Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards said the Central Goldfields and Mount Alexander shires were working on the project together.

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"(The feasibility study) will determines a whole range of other things such as Indigenous and First Nations involvement in the rail trail, community consultation," she said. "It also looks at what the cost is to actually get this up and running, bearing in mind that the rail already exists.

"The trail is already there. There's probably not a lot that needs to be done to actually enable this apart from you know, safety, environmental issues and things like that.

"If you think about the number of people that will potentially utilize the trail and the stopovers along the way, the tourism attraction is huge and the economy boost will be huge."

It is hoped the Castlemaine Maryborough Rail Trail will have new walking and cycling tracks established on the disused railway line in an effort to boost tourism in the regions.

"The old railway line that runs through Guildford, Campbell's Creek, Newstead and Carisbrook," Ms Edwards said.

"It connects all of these towns to what we know is becoming an increasingly popular pastime and that is cycling and walking."

Ms Edwards said tourism investment in the region was worthwhile after two years of the sector struggling through the pandemic.

"The reality is that we're investing funds for tourism attractions because we know that it's going to boost our economy coming off COVID and two years of really difficult circumstances," she said.

"We're certainly not out of COVID but the reality is we need to attract more people to our region.

"Obviously, the flow on effect from having lots of tourists utilise the 55 kilometers between those towns means that those little towns will benefit enormously in a boost to their economies."

Ms Edwards said developing the rail trail was timely with the bid to see the Victorian Goldfields become a UNESCO World Heritage listing and the 2026 Commonwealth Games on the horizon.

"This adds to that bid because it's actually connecting two very significant gold towns - Maryborough and Castlemaine - and all of the towns in between where we know the goldfields were just huge," she said.

"So this is a great and very exciting project."

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