Thursday, 20 February 2025

 Alison MARCHANT (Bellarine) (10:03): It was terrific to recently visit Wallington Primary School to celebrate construction commencing on their new building upgrades. School captains – and I am going to call them junior project managers – Nathan, Lily and Brianna gave me a tour of the site that will soon become new classrooms, and they gave a big tick of approval. The students and the school community, as well as the Wallington community, are all very excited to see this $2.1 million investment take place for an incredible local school that has served the community since 1868.

This is not the only exciting project currently underway on the Bellarine as we work to make our community facilities and road infrastructure as safe and accessible as possible. Just last week I visited Queenscliff’s coastguard to celebrate a rollout of new digital radios for the marine search and rescue units, to improve their communication on the water and give them the ability to speak to all emergency services when responding to rescue operations.

There will be more projects to celebrate throughout the year, with Collendina Reserve progressing in its road safety upgrades, which will make it safer for the Collendina cricket and footy club, as well as families and opponents coming to that ground, to move around the reserve safely, and next month we will see the beginning of an important intersection just outside Barwon Heads, with a new roundabout, dedicated bike lanes, pedestrian paths and improved safety at a bus stop at the Barwon Heads and Staceys roads intersection. And that is just the start of 2025. I look forward to celebrating more milestones throughout the year with the wonderful Bellarine community.