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The
cost of the project is estimated at over $1.5 million
The project will
be funded through a combination of:
- government grants
- the generous support of sponsors
- community-based fund-raising
- the hard work of local volunteers.
This will
never be a centrally controlled project. The project committee will
perform a coordinating and support role, but the aim is for each community
to 'own' and manage its section of the trail. The project provides
opportunities for innovation, enterprise and creativity in each community
along the route.
Marketing the experience
The trail web site will provide information about the trail,
preparing for the walk, the towns along the way and current conditions.
There will also be maps and guidebooks available in each town and,
eventually, through tourism information offices, outdoor stores, and a range
of organisations for teenagers right through to people in their eighties.
The project committee will co-ordinate a general communications campaign.
Each community also has the opportunity to promote itself as part
of the trail experience through its own channels. And, over time,
word of mouth will be a major part of the growth in its popularity.
The Golden Trail is fortunate to have received grants from the following organizations to date:
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RegionalOne Credit Union
Community Grant $2000 |
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Latrobe University
Community Grant $1000 |
The
money has been used to fund The Golden Trail Website
and the design and printing of our brochures and postage.
The Golden Trail Committee is also extremely thankful to Bendigo Web Central for their sponsorship of the design and maintenance of our website, with particular thanks to Mark Victor and to our web developer Kerryanne Boer.
How much will the project cost and how will it be funded?
Identifiable costs at this stage are:
- Trail markers
- Shelters
- Setting up and maintaining a website
- Producing a guide book
- Producing educational material for School Projects and Competition
- Community liason
We hope that by tapping into expertise within each Community, their collective skills in applying for funding will assist in this regard. This is a challenge for the Golden Trail Committee at present. It is our belief that, in order for the project to succeed, it needs to be a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach. One approach that the committee is exploring is to select a section of trail between two towns, running a media promotion in the local community and then calling a public meeting in order to gauge community support, energy and passion.
This approach could even trial a community walk over their section of the trail. What we learn from this would then guide how we approach community involvement over the rest of the trail.
How would the Project be coordinated?
We hope that this can be done through local community action groups under the guidance of the central Golden Trail Committee. In addition, a very comprehensive 'guidance manual' would be needed and a strong and active advisory committee that could support each local community.
We are wary of having a centralized power base in Bendigo where all decisions are made and decisions cleared for action. It must be a local community effort, with decisions made at a local level with us providing a framework within which it can happen. Clearly the framework must exist for each community to be able to link with each other so that trail users have a constant set of parameters throughout their journey. The level of independence that each local community wishes to have will vary along the route, and the Project should be able to accommodate this. |
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