A UNIVERSITY campus is not the only project Goulburn Mulwaree is pursuing with the federal government. It is also chasing Regional Development Australia (RDA) grants for four other initiatives.
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One is a new recycling centre in Bridge St, north Goulburn to accommodate Endeavour Industries’ existing operation. It would be part of a wider waste transfer operation planned by Denrith Pty Ltd, a company related to Divall’s earthmoving and Bulk Haulage.
The proposal, designed to recycle 8000 tonnes of material annually, is before the Joint Regional Planning Panel. Endeavour Industries has lodged the $2.2 million grant application. Divall’s director Andy Divall has donated the land for the recycling centre.
Endeavour CEO Margaret Cunningham said Mr Divall recognised that the Oxley St site had outgrown its premises and generously donated the land at Bridge St plus development application costs. If approved, the site would accommodate a state of the art recycling centre to be named the Goulburn Resource Recovery Centre.
The estimated total cost is $4 million. Mrs Cunningham said the facility had been in the planning for three years. She hoped the first sod would be turned by October 1 and the centre operational by May 1 2012.
It would employ 20 to 30 more people, including those with disabilities, indigenous and long-term unemployed. “It would be sensational for Goulburn and we are quietly confident of getting the funding,” Mr Cunningham said.
The initiative has also attracted generous inkind donations, including a $450,000 cardboard bailer press from Amcor and a $120,000 elephant’s foot press from Visy Industries. In addition, surrounding councils like Upper Lachlan Shire and Boorowa are supporting the centre.
“It will double our recycling output, which will ensure our ongoing viability,” Mrs Cunningham said. Council will try once again to secure funding to replace the aged outdoor swimming pool at Goulburn Aquatic Centre. The RDA application for $3.3 million, the full replacement cost, follows two failed bids for federal government help.
The project is “shovel ready,” a key requirement of the RDA fund. Specialists Coleridge Architects has prepared plans for the new pool. Quarry company Holcim Australia is applying for $3.12m in the RDA fund’s second round to build a highway overpass at Marulan.
The overpass’s construction was a consent condition of Holcim’s Lynwood Quarry expansion plans, recently approved by the state government.
It will create direct access to South Marulan Rd, Jerrara Rd and the quarry rather than trucks having to go through town. Mr Cooper said Council was partnering the bid because it would solve the town’s Hume Highway/Portland Ave intersection problems.
The intersection was closed last year to southbound traffic turning into Marulan and vehicles crossing from one side of the highway to the other.
Goulburn Mulwaree is also partnering Shoalhaven Council in a funding application for a single-lane concrete bridge on Oallen Ford Rd. Original estimates on this project have blown out from $1.1m to $1.3m, Mr Cooper said. He believed RDA preferred to see several parties involved in applications.
