In Ballarat, cars have always ruled. Just 1.3 per cent of the population takes public transport to work, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Which is not to say that there haven’t been attempts to lure people out of their vehicles.

Back in 2011, as development of the city’s western growth zone kicked off, residents moving into the new suburb of Lucas were promised direct access to the city’s bus network and fast, efficient cross-city travel. That was the vision laid out in the Alfredton-West Precinct Plan, and the masterplan for the new suburb.

Fast-forward 13 years and Lucas has several bus stops. All it’s missing are the buses.

“Ballarat’s full of all these new estates that are just not accessible, says Lucas resident Bry Reich.

“You can’t get to them unless you’ve got a car.”

Alongside Winter Valley and Cardigan, Lucas is one of several neighbourhoods that remain disconnected from the city’s bus network.

And with Ballarat’s population predicted to increase by 55,000 by 2041, the issue looms large over the livability that is a proud drawcard of Victoria’s fastest growing regional city.

Just ask Reich, an employee at GovHub in the CBD, for whom the commute to work has become the kind of headache that people leave capital cities to escape.

“Of a morning, it can take nearly half an hour just to leave the estate because of the amount of cars trying to exit.”

The nearest operational bus stop to Reich’s home is a near two-kilometer walk, compelling Reich, along with many of Lucas’ 4,500 other residents, to drive to work.

“Not everyone can afford, especially these days, to own a car,” says Reich. “It’s putting more pressure on the CBD because there’s just not enough [parking] space.”

Since the state government’s last bus review of Ballarat in 2015, the city’s population has grown by almost 17 per cent, more than any other Victorian regional centre. A fresh review is long overdue, argues Mayor Des Hudson.*

“We are a growing city with a growing population, and we deserve to have a fit for purpose public transport system that is able to get people to and from a certain destination in a reasonable amount of time,” Hudson told journalists at a forum on Ballarat’s future strategy in May.*

He pointed out that Mildura had recently had a bus review. “We want our turn. We’re a very large city and we would like to see that Public Transport Victoria is able to handle any one bus review at any given time.”

But there are no plans for a bus network review for Ballarat, a spokesperson for the Minister for Public and Active Transport, Gabrielle Williams, told The Citizen.

Buses alone will solve Ballarat’s transport woes, argues the chief executive of the Committee for Ballarat, Michael Poulton, but are a piece of the puzzle.

“If we start thinking about the cities of the future and what good design looks like, there’s shared public transport services” like bikes and scooters as well as rideshare services.

Poulton wants to see investment in eco-friendly options that would allow the city to transition from the default of cars, roads and car parks to green space encouraging activity – “a combination of walking, e-mobility, cycling, trains, buses and cars”.

Since 2017 the Victorian Government, in partnership with Ballarat City Council, say they have delivered 12 kilometers of walking and bike trails as part of the 2017-2025 Ballarat Cycling Action Plan, including connections between growth areas like Lucas.

Reich says that doesn’t help her, along with the thousands of other Ballarat residents who live with a chronic health condition, or who need to carry equipment or materials for their work.

“The simple answer would be for me to take public transport to work, but in order to do that [from Lucas] it would take me an hour and eleven minutes.”

Reich can’t help but feel that the needs of Ballarat residents are being overlooked by the Victorian Government.

“There’s been reports written … but nothing ever gets done. I just think as regional Victorians we’re not a priority, especially for the state government.”

* City of Ballarat interviews for this article were conducted prior to the local government election caretaker period

This is part of Building Ballarat, a reporting project by the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne co-published with the Ballarat Courier.