Victoria’s $42.7m boating, fishing infrastructure push kicks off

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas yesterday handed down the budget that will shape the state’s spending over the next few years, including a major fishing project running out to 2022.

In it, the government spells out that it will spend $47.2 million “to work with local councils and land managers to abolish boat ramp parking and launching fees, upgrade boating infrastructure and boost safety across the state”.

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That compares with $50.3 million the Andrews government will spend in the 2019-20 financial year “building a new St Kilda pier for locals to enjoy”.

The government said the funding would “deliver urgent upgrades to six of the state’s busiest boat ramps” – Mordialloc, Queenscliff, Point Richards, Hastings and Rhyll boat ramps, and the Cowes Jetty – as well as “scrap fees, and review infrastructure management at Port Phillip and Western Port”.

Better Boating Victoria will kick off the new financial year with $36.9 million in its war chest that will be used, among other things, to remove parking and launching fees at all of the state’s government-owned facilities.

It is budgeted to spend an estimated $27 million in the next financial year, and an extra $12.6 million in the 2020-21 financial year.

The Target One Million program – the government’s bid to get more of the state’s residents out fishing – will receive $7 million next financial year in its bid to stock Victorian waterways with up to 10 million more native fish, a program running through until 2022.

“Stage two of the Target One Million plan will start with a $35 million investment that will continue supporting recreational fishing by boosting fish stocks, ending commercial fishing in Gippsland Lakes to give it back to recreational fishers and building a new native fish hatchery near Shepparton,” a statement from Fishing and Boating Minister Jaala Pulford said.

All up, the Victorian government will spend $82.2 million improving boating and fishing.

Regional boat ramps are not named in the budget papers, although Warrnambool’s Lady Bay boat ramp – recently named the state’s worst in an RACV survey – has received separate funding for an upgrade in the lead-up to yesterday’s budget.

The Victorian Government has flagged that it plans to start introducing fee-free boat ramps by spring.

The spending comes via the Andrews government’s commitment to spend “every cent of marine licensing and boat registration fees to improving boating safety and facilities”.

The government said the Department of Transport was still working on “measures to establish the Better Boating Fund”.

The state has already kicked off one major infrastructure project in the state, allocating more than $400,000 to fix Warrnambool's troubled Lady Bay boat ramp.