A Green New Deal for Ballarat

A wind farm outside Port Fairy (source)

Originally published on 02-12-2019 in the Ballarat Courier as The deal that could offer Ballarat's future the most. In light of the recession that COVID-19 will push us into, it's more important than ever to stimulate our economy in an environmentally-friendly way. 

Railway Archaeology: National Railway Museum, York

In Part 3 of my series on my trip through the UK, we'll take a look at the National Railway Museum in York. The museum is right next to the mainline station, as it's the former site of a large depot and maintenance facility. My first port of call was the Great Hall, which used to be the motive power depot.

What to do with the Lydiard Street crossing?

The crash site (via Luke66683251)

Ballarat Station is right next to Lydiard Street, and the level crossing there is unique in Victoria for its heritage swing gates. Approximately a century old, the gates cross the railway line by default, allowing cars through, and swing around to cross the road and allow trains through when required. At various points in past decades, there have been proposals to replace the heritage gates with more modern boom gates, but the people of Ballarat have been pretty adamant that the gates form part of the heritage aesthetic of the station precinct and they want to keep them for as long as possible.

Late on Saturday night, a V/Line passenger train ploughed through the heritage gates at speed, severely damaging them and only coming to a halt beyond the Doveton Street level crossing, several hundred metres away. The investigation into how this happened will take time - given the stopping distance it seems clear that the train ran through Ballarat station at some speed, but it's not yet clear why. Regardless, though, the extensive damage to the heritage gates will mean we need to think about what the future of this crossing should be.