With the right amount of money you can (purportedly) buy the right to name a star – but in Greater Bendigo you can name name a bridge for free.
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That’s because VicTrack is calling on the public to come up with a name for an unnamed bridge on Huntly-Fosterville Road in Huntly.
But there is a serious side to this quirky public campaign – the nameless bridge is one of 40 rail bridges which VicTrack operates that it has identified as being in a high risk location.
“High risk means that they are located in fire prone areas, in areas subject to flooding and/or are isolated in the landscape and are therefore features that may be useful to the emergency services to pinpoint an incident during a natural disaster or emergency event,” a VicTrack spokesperson said.
Having a name helps emergency services identify the location in the event of fire, flood or natural disaster.
“This is the first bridge naming competition to be conducted on-line and required the approval of the Office of Geographic Names,” the spokesperson said.
“This competition is therefore a pilot that will be reported back to the Office of Geographic Names.”
Nominations close on December 31. The nominations will be short-listed and in February 2016 and the community will be asked to vote for their preferred bridge name.
To nominate a name, go to the VicTrack website.