Central Murray Regional Transport Strategy

Background

The Central Murray region spans north-western Victoria and southern New South Wales, covering a large geographic area with a relatively small and dispersed population. The region is highly productive, with agriculture as its dominant industry, contributing significantly to both state and national economies. However, its scale and remoteness create substantial transport challenges, including limited public transport services, constrained freight networks and underfunded local road infrastructure.

Freight demand continues to grow due to the expansion of horticulture and emerging industries, with millions of tonnes of goods moving in and out of the region annually. At the same time, communities face issues such as restricted access to services, road safety concerns, climate impacts on infrastructure and barriers to efficient freight movement.

The Central Murray Regional Transport Forum—comprising six councils across the region—sought to update its existing strategy to respond to these evolving challenges. The objective was to define a shared vision and prioritised investment pipeline that would improve transport outcomes for both communities and industry.

Our Role

NineSquared supported the Central Murray Regional Transport Forum to develop the 2024 strategy, providing a comprehensive evidence base and clearly defined set of priorities to guide future investment and advocacy.

Our work included analysing regional transport networks, freight movements, demographic trends and economic drivers to identify key constraints and opportunities. We worked closely with councils and stakeholders to align priorities across jurisdictions and ensure the strategy reflected both local needs and broader regional outcomes.

The strategy established four overarching goals focused on improving freight efficiency, enhancing access to services, increasing safety and resilience, and supporting more sustainable transport outcomes. These goals are underpinned by ten priority initiatives, spanning critical infrastructure upgrades, expanded public transport, improved local road networks and actions to support emerging industries.

Key outcomes of the engagement included:

• A unified regional transport vision supported by all member councils
• A prioritised pipeline of strategic initiatives, including major freight, rail and road upgrades
• Strengthened evidence to support funding advocacy with state and federal governments
• A clear framework for implementation, including governance and performance measures

The strategy positions the Central Murray region to better manage future growth, improve liveability for residents and enhance the efficiency of its nationally significant freight task.

The strategy and information about the Central Murray Regional Transport Forum can be found here.

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