The Kyabram P-12 College team of Killara Heywood, Xander Griffiths, Lachie Rodriquez, Patrick Henderson and Matilda Sowter represented the region.
With more than 1.5 million Victorians living in rural areas, it is clear that more needs to be done to support the accessibility of travel between major cities and regional towns.
A trip from Kyabram to Melbourne, which is only a three-hour drive by car, took Killara seven hours to complete by public transport.
The effort it takes to travel often discourages those living in rural areas to make journeys.
“(Many people) can't find work in our own town, but there's no way for them to find work in larger towns, because the connections just aren’t there,” Killara said.
“They're all people who are missing recreational opportunities, medical appointments, employment opportunities, education.”
The lack of usable public transport forces many residents to rely on private transportation such as cars, which can severely limit those without access to private vehicles.
Within metropolitan areas, citizens are able to rely on public transport to get to school, go to work and return home. In regional areas, that’s unfortunately not the case.
“Increasing that access to the country could benefit both the country and Melbourne,” Matilda said.
The introduction of new and more usable public transport to connect different parts of the state would encourage travel between urban and regional areas, driving for new infrastructure in rural towns.
Increased employment and education opportunities would arise, as well as easier access to healthcare and emergency services.
Many citizens have spoken up across regional Victoria about the state of public transport.
The Public Transport Users Association in Victoria gets “regular comments and complaints about the lack of usable public transport in non-metropolitan areas”.
PTUA has been a consistent and strong force in improving public transport across Victoria, from lobbying MPs to improve accessibility, to conducting an in-depth study about the irregularities with timetables.
“Rural and regional public transport services are undoubtedly deficient,” a representative from PTUA said.
However, because these services were so far out from metropolitan areas, the state government was slow to respond to issues, the spokesperson said.
The Increased Regularity and Accessibility of Rural Public Transport Bill aims to support Victorians in their daily lives by having a dedicated team solving issues regarding public transport in rural areas.
An established Victorian Transport Rural Accessibility Committee would assess and address issues found by members of the public through the introduction of new infrastructure such as trains and bus systems, improved public transport routes and a revamp of current scheduling.
The current state of rural public transport turns necessary trips into all-day trips, which isolates citizens from these areas.
“There’s no big opportunities in the country. But then that means that no opportunities can be developed,’’ the team said.
‘’And so it’s a feedback loop that just leads to regional Victoria being left behind.’’
As students living in regional Victoria, the Kyabram team is affected every day by irregular and inaccessible transport.
The team members’ passion in researching and debating this topic led to the bill being passed on July 10, and will now be passed on to the Youth Minister.
— Tandia Blaszczyk
