Victorians gain a say on $30m boating fund

The first step – a public survey to identify what the state’s boaters want the most – was launched this week with a public survey to help the Victorian Department of Transport work out its priorities.

“We know boaters want better facilities and access, less congestion, better facility management, and transparency of funding used for facilities,” Better Boating Victoria, the government branch that will manage future spending, said.

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“That’s why we are developing a Victorian recreational boating strategy that will address long-standing issues in this sector and underpin prioritisation of future boating investment.”

Better Boating Victoria has already formed a ministerial roundtable made up of government and industry groups that will help plan and develop the strategy.

The survey, available until February 29, asks boaters to suggest where they believe the funds should be spent.

However, it will be a long wait before the list of priorities is drawn up, with a draft strategy expected to be released in June and the final strategy ready to kick off when the Better Boating Fund becomes functional from July 2021.

The Better Boating Fund was established last year to hold and distribute an estimated $30 million in revenue that is collected each year from recreational boating licensing and registration fees.

It was formed in the wake of a state government re-election promise to make boating more affordable for families, a strategy that has also included removing launching and parking fees at all public boat ramps.

The money raised from recreational boating charges, which were once consolidated in the Victorian Government’s coffers, will now be spent on improving boating and fishing infrastructure, and fishing and marine enforcement activity throughout the state.

Better Boating Victoria has also said it will host a series of face-to-face events throughout regional Victoria in March “to test the priorities identified during this consultation in each region”.

One of the proposals Better Boating Victoria is weighing up is the creation of a series of “super ramps”, where boat ramps at a number of metropolitan Melbourne boating hot spots are upgraded to increase their boat launching and trailer parking capacity.

Better Boating Victoria is looking at the super ramps as one way to ease congestion at peak times – the line to launch or retrieve a boat can sometimes be as long as four hours at some of the more popular sites around Port Phillip Bay.

The survey is available here.