Motorists, cyclists and pedestrians in Geelong are a step closer to safer, more reliable journeys with contracts awarded to deliver the much-needed Barwon Heads Road Upgrade.

The project will be delivered through a trio of construction partners, creating around 500 local jobs and about 1,400 indirect jobs – crucial to the region’s economic recovery, post-COVID-19.

Decmil, BMD Constructions and BildGroup will build the project in partnership with Major Road Projects Victoria.

As a nationally significant development, Infrastructure Australia has evaluated the business case and has confirmed there is very significant benefit in duplicating the road, with a total economic benefit of $569 million and travel time savings of to $356 million.

The Barwon Heads Road Upgrade will add new lanes for four kilometres between Settlement Road and Reserve Road, remove a dangerous level crossing at Marshall and upgrade intersections at Settlement Road and Breakwater Road.

New traffic signals will also be constructed at Crows Road, Barwarre Road, Marshalltown Road and Reserve Road.

The upgrade, a G21 priority under its Regional Roads Connections project, will improve traffic flow and reduce congestion on Barwon Heads Road – a crucial arterial link between Geelong, the Bellarine and the growing Armstrong Creek residential precinct.

It will also provide better connections to active and public transport modes and ensure Barwon Heads Road can support up to 44,000 daily journeys expected by 2031.

As part of the upgrade, on-road cycling lanes and an off-road shared use pedestrian and cycling path will also be built, improving safety for other road users and allowing better connections to the Waurn Ponds Trail, the South Barwon Reserve, Belmont Common and the Barwon River Precinct.

A new bridge over the Melbourne-Warrnambool rail line removes the dangerous level crossing at Marshall, improving safety and traffic flow.

The Barwon Heads Road Upgrade is being delivered through a new partnership approach to road building contracts, and was supported by the Australian Government’s fast-tracking of the assessment and approval phases, to support funding for this significant project.

It is estimated upgrades will be delivered by 2024.

G21 welcomes the Victorian Government’s $27.9 million investment in social and affordable housing in the region which will deliver around 100 new homes across 10 locations in the City of Greater Geelong and Surf Coast areas.

“This investment is a great first step. We urgently need subsidised housing to help house the increasing number of people who can’t afford skyrocketing rents in our overheated private rental market. In some cases, people are paying almost half of their income to rent a home which leaves very little for other daily essentials,” said G21 CEO Giulia Baggio.

The state grant of $27.9 million will be boosted by a further $10 million from community-based housing providers.

“Community-based providers are highly regulated, not-for-profit property developers who build social housing and also ensure that people renting these homes receive support. This funding announcement will deliver safe and secure accommodation for several hundred people and generate construction jobs,” said Ms Baggio.

For the past year G21 and Sirovilla have been working in partnership with the five councils of the region and the state government to identify the need for additional social housing across the region.

Data from the ABS Census has been used to map a shortfall of around 6,000 new social housing properties to meet current demand for people already living in our region. There is a need for additional social housing in all G21 municipalities.

The grant comes from the state government’s $5.3 billion Big Housing Build program which aims to build more than 12,000 new social and affordable homes across Victoria to take pressure off significant waiting lists. G21 would welcome a co-investment from the Commonwealth Government to expand the project, especially to address key worker housing and worker shortages in the region’s townships.

GeelongPort and Spirit of Tasmania have unveiled design images of the Spirit of Tasmania’s new terminal building to be constructed at Corio Quay in Geelong.

The state-of-the-art building will open its doors to the public in 2022, with construction due to begin later this year.

Inspiration for the building’s design has been drawn from Tasmania’s famously ethereal landscapes.

The design by Brand Architects incorporates angled windows and sunshades over the glass façade, evoking images of the jagged contours of Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain and icy waters of Dove Lake.

Cradle Mountain is synonymous with pristine nature and wilderness. The colour palette was chosen for the neutral greys and bronze colours reminiscent of the dolerite peak, often shrouded by cloud.

The striking and functional design will include a café, dedicated play area for children and spacious lounge areas for the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected annually.

Spirit of Tasmania’s move to Geelong will be a great boost for Tasmanian and Victorian businesses recovering from ongoing travel restrictions as a result of COVID. It will establish Geelong as a major tourism gateway to world class destinations in Victoria and especially the magic of the G21 region.

To find out more about this exciting project visit https://engage.geelongport.com.au/ or to learn more about what Spirit of Tasmania has to offer go to www.spiritoftasmania.com.au.

At the time of writing, the G21 region has the highest rate of vaccination against COVID in Victoria. More than half the population over the age of 15 has had at least one dose and 30.3 per cent of the population is now fully vaccinated against the vicious virus.

In large part, we can thank our regional health services leaders who have moved quickly to put their vaccinations systems into top gear. Barwon Health led the state by developing its own booking platform CoVaxApp, which also reports on patient outcomes.

This innovation, shared widely within the region, is enabling up to 3000 jabs a day across G21. Outreach teams are working with charities to inoculate the homeless. Health services are working with employers to vaccinate and test workers on site. Communications in eight languages are being circulated to spur vaccination rates in hard-to-reach communities.

This is a serious campaign, and we are doing well, but there are many months and many more jabs to go before our region reaches a place of safety. We must maintain momentum.

It’s also worth looking back on how much we’ve achieved.

It’s been just over a year since Colac fell into the grip of Victoria’s biggest regional COVID outbreak. Fiona Brew had just arrived to take up her new role as Chief Executive of Colac Area Health and suddenly found herself in the midst of a full-blown health crisis.

“There were a heap of emotions – fear, and anger that despite the measures we took, we got COVID here. With so much happening in Melbourne, there was little awareness of how we were suffering. There was no manual, we were ahead of the directions and we had to step up on our own as a health service and community. The general concern was how to keep everyone safe, especially the vulnerable and people in aged care,” she says.

“I was also incredibly proud of the community – how we rallied, how people cared for each other, the small acts of kindness. Despite social distancing and mask-wearing, the caring and kindness were exemplary.”

The community of 13,000 pulled together, effectively locking itself down, relying on local leaders and its own clubs and networks to guide the community through the fear and confusion of those early days.

The ADF was deployed to support the enormous local effort and COVID was successfully chased out of town. This was achieved at a time when we knew very little about the virus, we were not used to lockdowns, contact tracing was poor, there were no systems properly in place and vaccines were a pipe dream. Colac held fast and came through the worst.

By the end of last year, we were looking forward to 2021, naively imagining we would be free of COVID and restrictions. But here we are again, Groundhog Day, right across the nation. Another winter, another strain, mandatory masks, more lockdowns and curfews. Bad news arriving by the truckload. The IPCC’s climate change update reminding us that inaction is a recipe for disaster; the Taliban returning to power, shutting down 20 years of progress for girls and women; the prospect of another mutation of COVID in 2022. The world feels grim.

The cumulative stress is taking its toll. Although some of these things are beyond our control, protection from the virus is within reach. Health chief Fiona Brew says it’s another critical moment in time for the community to band together and finish the job.

“Get vaccinated. And if you can’t get a jab in your local town, don’t use it as an excuse. You can go to the Ford factory, you can go to your GP. The only way to get through this is with increased vaccination rates. We need to be as creative and innovative as we were last year in overcoming the virus.”

She believes the sense of partnership, trust and strong communication that has been built up in our communities is driving the strong vaccine uptake.

“We can do it. We have cause for optimism and better times ahead in 2022. We’ve learned a lot in 18 months, this is a step in the journey, and we can work together to do it. Get vaccinated so we can get on with life.”