Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last federal election, the Turnbull government committed $2.5 million towards the RidgeWalk project in the Dandenong Ranges. The 14 kilometres of walking trails will connect villages in the ranges from Ferny Creek, Sassafras, Olinda, Mount Dandenong, Kalorama and Montrose right down to Upwey. It will have minimal environmental impact, and the great news about this project is that it will tell the incredible history of the Dandenong Ranges—of Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Fred Williams and Aboriginal artists such as William Barak and Bill and Lin Onus who were inspired to create their masterpieces in the Dandenong Ranges.

This is a very important local project for creating jobs in the hills, and I'd like to thank Ali Wastie from the Yarra Ranges Council and Dr Bronwyn Hanna, who has been working tirelessly behind the scenes putting together a national heritage listing for the Dandenong Ranges, something I'm passionate about. At the moment, the problem is that, although we have $2.5 million of federal funding, we need the state Labor government to get on board. With Puffing Billy, they finally came to the table and put money down on a vital local tourism project. They need to come to the table again and put money into this very important project. This is something very exciting. It will tell the history of the Dandenong Ranges and will be great for tourism. It will create local jobs and tell a great story about Australian landscape artists.