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Warragul & Baw Baw
Citizen
Unused bus stops 'ridiculous'
TWICE MONTHLY // FRIDAY 16 OCTOBER 2015
BAW BAW // WARRAGUL Bus Lines and a local campaigner have expressed frustration over bus stop facilities at Warragul station going unused, with one campaigner labelling the newly built infrastructure a "ridiculous" "white elephant."
Campaigner Jim Chapman last week told media the present review being undertaken by Public Transport Victoria into regional public transport networks needed to put Warragul first to address a massive shortcoming in bus service delivery. "We've got this big bus interchange, I call it a white elephant, sitting up here with 200 car spaces and no buses," he said. "We've been waiting [for expanded services] since [the local service review of] 2010; I think we are entitled to an expansion. "Before anyone else gets buses we need buses in Warragul and Drouin, and that is what I've been campaigning for." Warragul's bus timetable is limited, running only a small number of services in the late morning and early afternoon, while Drouin is the largest regional Victorian town to have no town service at all.
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"The response has always been 'it has been approved. [Local Liberal MP] Gary Blackwood told me that very early in the piece,'" Mr Chapman said. "Every one of them (politicians) I've dealt with, Liberal and Labor, has told me there's no funding. All approved but no funding. Well, now there's [state-wide] funding available, where are they going to spend it? It's time we got some of it." Warragul Bus Lines chief Philip Radford joined Mr Chapman at his media event and told the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen he was not sure how well bus service shortcomings were being communicated to PTV. "I think a lot of the [Regional Network Development Plan] feedback locally has been about trains rather than buses," he said. "I think there were a lot of concerns about the single track between Bunyip and Longwarry and being on time, but I don't know how much feedback there was about the buses. "There's been a few surveys done and a lot of people didn't even realise there was a bus because the times it
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Canning plan
BAW BAW // STREET art is something many people identify with the laneways of Melbourne, but there has been rising interest in fostering local artistic talent.
Four generations 25 years serving Gippsland and now the world Still Warragul's home of Australian made 1a Barkly Street, Warragul 5623 4369 www.portphillipshop.com.au
The continuing rise of street art as an accepted art form can, according to Drouin-based artist Jesse Toby, can be summarised with a change in name. "The stigma attached to 'graffiti' has [gone with the] swing to 'street art,'" he told the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen. "It's funny that renaming something can change the stigma or perception attached to it, and as soon as certain people say it's all right then
By William Kulich Keening_Product
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suddenly the public starts to think it's all right. That leads to more realistic types of budgets given because people don't just think 'you just want to spray paint for fun because you like to do it,' so it can become more of a recognised profession." Jesse and Melbourne man Trav Bradshaw, both members of Melbourne street art group The Fatcap Concept, recently completed a mural at Warragul's Liberty Inn restaurant and bar. It is not often that Jesse, a full-time street artist doing works
Jesse Toby (top) and Trav Bradshaw working on a mural at a local restaurant. Photo by William PJ Kulich.
across the state, receives local commissions, but street art's slow uptake in West Gippsland is something he is looking to change. "I've been in Drouin for five years and haven't done anything locally, painting-wise, except for at Drouin South Primary School. But I have just started touching base with more local community-style stuff," he said. "There's a lot of opportunity and a lot of space [in Baw Baw] which I
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