OMGreatOceanRoad : Support the Great Ocean Road

We petition the Honourable Julia Gillard MP, Prime Minister of Australia and the Honourable Anthony Albanese MP, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, urging you to:

a. as a matter of urgency, include the Great Ocean Road (spanning 243 kilometres along the western Victorian coast from Torquay to just short of Warrnambool) within the National Land Transport Network to recognise its national significance for federal government funding purposes, and

b. guarantee federal government funding of at least 50 percent of minimum work necessary to upgrade and maintain the road (on current estimates, $10 million per annum over the next five years – making a federal government share of $25 million over five years) which, together with an equivalent level of state government funding currently being sought, will reverse structural deterioration that threatens the long-term viability of the road as a vital access link for locals and as the prime focus of the region’s annual $2.1 billion tourism industry.

We petition the Honourable Ted Ballieu MP, Premier of Victoria and the Honourable Terry Mulder MP, Victorian Minister for Transport, urging you to:

- guarantee state government funding of at least 50 percent of the minimum work necessary to upgrade and maintain the road (on current estimates, $10 million per annum over the next five years – making a state government share of $25 million over five years) which, together with an equivalent level of federal government funding currently being sought, will reverse structural deterioration that threatens the long-term viability of the road as a vital access link for locals and as the prime focus of the region’s annual $2.1 billion tourism industry.