Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my absolute pleasure to bring to the House's attention the works that have commenced on the $17 million redevelopment of Shepparton's Maude Street Mall. The Maude Street Mall is right in the heart of the Shepparton CBD retail precinct. This game-changing project will help transform Shepparton's central business district, and ensure our productive and vibrant region remains strong and prosperous. The mall revitalisation will drive economic growth and create local jobs. As the member for Nicholls, I'm proud to see the project come to fruition, with co-funding from the Liberal-National coalition government from our Building Better Regions Fund—and it was an $8.5 million contribution. Stage 1 is currently under construction, and most of the work with stage 1 will be completed by the end of this year. New playground equipment will be installed early next year. The project design has been developed by the Shepparton City Council in conjunction with the local traders and the chamber of commerce. I would particularly like to acknowledge the work of John Anderson, who has led the chamber of commerce and made significant contributions towards representing the retail traders with the concept design. This is going to allow for an Australian first, which will be one-way traffic and on-street parking.

Many councils, towns and cities around Australia will be looking at Shepparton to see a mall that has been pedestrian-only for the last 40 years being ripped up to allow slow-moving traffic to make its way back to the mall to enable more people to shop at our retail precinct.