General News
22 May, 2023
$200k boost for station
The Central Goldfields Shire Council has increased the value of a contract to bring digital visitor experience content to the Maryborough Railway Station by more than $200,000. At last week’s special council meeting, councillors moved to increase...
The Central Goldfields Shire Council has increased the value of a contract to bring digital visitor experience content to the Maryborough Railway Station by more than $200,000.
At last week’s special council meeting, councillors moved to increase the value of contract G1704-22 Maryborough Railway Station Activation — Digital Content Creation and Installation of Visitor Experience by a further $208,780, bringing the total project cost to over $524,000.
According to the report tabled to council, the contract forms part of stage two of the broader Maryborough Railway Station Activation Project which aims to establish Maryborough as a key visitor destination.
The report states G1704-22 includes the design and installation of digital content and visitor displays at the Central Goldfields Visitor Information Centre at the railway station, including the Worth its Weight in Gold interactive display, the Welcome Stranger immersive experience and a series of interpretive storytelling panels.
The Welcome Stranger experience includes the development of a five minute digital film detailing the story of the gold nugget, which will be shown in an exclusive architecturally designed space being purpose-built within the information centre, according to the report.
The report further states that to ensure “maximum impact now and support funding bids for further activation of the space in storytelling and developing visitor experience, it is critical that the digital infrastructure assets... are of a high quality, future-proof and could be scalable”.
Speaking during the meeting, councillor Chris Meddows-Taylor said the Maryborough Railway Station will become a global destination.
“The origins of this go back to 2020... we were very successful in getting a much-valued Regional Development Victoria grant and that’s been the basis of enabling a whole amount of work to take place, including the updated information centre and other works to activate the station,” he said.
“Of course this is a moving feast, our realisation of what the Maryborough Station is and can be grows and extends all the time.
“We now realise that Maryborough Station is going to be a place where people from around the world will come and visit and will find out about the wonderful things in the Victorian goldfields.”
The report tabled during last week’s meeting outlines that cost savings from other projects within council’s 2022/23 capital program enable this project to be funded.
“This will create a world-class visitor experience, will draw people in from around the world and tell the stories of our region,” Cr Meddows-Taylor said.
“This is something to be proud of and I thoroughly endorse this.”
Cr Geoff Lovett echoed Cr Meddows-Taylor’s views, explaining the importance of getting this project right from the beginning.
“The digital activation installation at the visitor information centre is incredibly exciting and it will become increasingly vital in our attempts to attract tourists,” he said.
“I believe it’s crucial that before the installation opens, we must have the best information available on the latest equipment.
“Nothing would be worse than opening the installation and in 12 or 18 months, having to upgrade it.
“We must get this right at the beginning.”
Stage two of the project follows the completion of stage one, valued at $2 million, which saw the visitor information centre relocated to the station building and the opening of a new co-working space.