Council & Business
20 September, 2022
Next step towards sewering Talbot taken
The push for a centralised sewerage system in Talbot has taken another step towards reality, with technical and costing assessments already underway for the system and community engagement to commence next month. Planning for the Talbot Futures...
The push for a centralised sewerage system in Talbot has taken another step towards reality, with technical and costing assessments already underway for the system and community engagement to commence next month.
Planning for the Talbot Futures Project has begun, with consultant teams commencing work to deliver the project’s two key elements — a town structure plan overseen by the Central Goldfields Shire Council and a fully costed sewerage plan overseen by Central Highlands Water.
The goal of the project is to establish an overall vision for the future of Talbot that protects the township’s key heritage and character attributes while allowing for a sustainable level of growth and change.
Engineering firm Jacobs have been contracted to undertake the technical and costing assessments for the sewerage scheme, work which has already commenced, while Hansen Partnership will lead the structure planning side of the project, in association with SGS Economics and Hello City engagement specialists.
Community engagement will form part of the next stage of the project, commencing next month and council’s mayor and Talbot resident Chris Meddows-Taylor said the community’s involvement was critical.
“We need to understand the aspirations of Talbot locals for their township in terms of character to treasure, environmental values to retain and improve, bushfire and flood risks to consider, and how to best manage growth,” he said.
“We also need to consider the community’s needs for public infrastructure such as a local school and kindergarten, recreation and community facilities, broadband and mobile services and local retail offerings.
“Growth may support the long-term viability of these core social connectors with benefits for existing and future residents, as well as visitors who are drawn to Talbot’s famous farmer’s market and other hidden charms.
“Next month we’ll be calling on the Talbot community to get involved and I really hope to see as many locals as possible getting involved.”
In September last year the Victorian Government announced $630,000 for the project, bolstered by $60,000 from council.
Long-time advocate for sewerage in Talbot, Reiny Gunther, said it was positive to see things moving ahead.
“It’s good to see that something’s happening,” he said.
“It’s no good for the government to spend all its money in Melbourne, some of it has got to go into the country.
“Without that money this town just won’t grow and we want it to — if this town grows, the shire grows and sewerage will help achieve that.”
Mr Gunther said over time, Talbot’s growth had been going backwards, something he believes a sewerage system would change.
“We’re losing one item after the other slowly, the milk bar is gone and the school enrolments are getting less and we don’t want that — we want those enrolments to go up,” he said.
“Getting sewerage in Talbot is crucial to getting the town and community to grow, it makes the town a more liveable place.
“It’s something that should have been done 25 years ago when we were in the Shire of Talbot and Clunes — Clunes was done one year and Talbot was meant to be the following year, but the shire was amalgamated into Central Goldfields.
“If it had have been done back then, we would now be a growing metropolis and instead, we’re a little village.”