Lighting the Regions

​In 2014, the CVGA partnered with the Wimmerra Mallee Sustainability Alliance, the City of Greater Bendigo and the Mount Alexander Shire Council to design and facilitate the $11.6 million Lighting the Regions bulk street lighting upgrade project; the largest of its kind in Australia.

To bring this project together, the CVGA created and led a team that engaged all 16 participating municipalities, facilitated the development of individual and collective business cases, developed the project’s marketing and branding package and worked with the City of Greater Bendigo to prepare a funding application to the federal government for their $5 million contribution.

The upgrades were managed by the City of Greater Bendigo and delivered through Powercor, the local Distribution Network Service Provider.
After three years of delivery, the project is now complete. It has overseen the replacement of over 22,600 residential and shared street lights across an area covering almost 45% of regional Victoria. The old mercury vapour streetlights have been replaced with new LED lights providing energy savings of up to 77% and brighter street lighting for over 300,000 residents.

The project will result in an estimated reduction of 180,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 20 years, saving local councils and their rate payers up to $57 million in operating and energy costs.

Lighting the Regions Final Report​

The local government and Alliance project partners