2026/2027 Budget adopted
Council adopted its 2026/27 Budget on 23 June 2026, with a focus on supporting community, protecting critical services, and ensuring the organisation remains financially sustainable over the long term.
The Budget demonstrates a careful balance between service delivery, infrastructure investment and responding to cost-of-living pressures facing the community.
The 2026/27 Budget:
- Average rate increase of 2.5%, below the State Government cap and below CPI.
- More than $54.4 million in capital works investment, with $22.7m funded by grants.
- $1.5m in savings and efficiency measures to help manage rising costs, in addition to $2m in ongoing savings achieved in 2025/26.
- $483,000 in pensioner rebates.
- Delivers investment in roads, parks, community facilities and essential services across the shire, while acknowledging the cost-of-living pressures many households are facing.
As a Council delivering services across 21,000 km² – approximately 10% of Victoria – there is an ongoing challenge of efficiently delivering services across a large and dispersed region. Our demographics and geography often require duplication of services to ensure all communities are supported, including multiple service centres, waste transfer stations, libraries and open spaces. This comes at a cost that must be balanced against our commitment to support communities.
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