Annual Budget 2026/27
Ararat Rural City Council’s 2026/2027 Budget was adopted on Tuesday 28 April 2026 by Council for the 2026/27 financial year and sets out Council’s continued commitment to responsible financial management, strong service delivery and strategic investment across the municipality.
The 2026/27 Budget focuses on maintaining essential services, renewing critical community assets, and ensuring ratepayers receive value for money in an environment of rising operating costs and changing community expectations.
Council’s 2026/27 Budget continues the financially responsible approach maintained over the past eight financial years, with a 2.25 percent rate rise, which is 0.5 percent below the 2026/27 rate cap of 2.75 percent.
A key feature of the 2026/27 Budget is a substantial $15.797 million capital works program, alongside a projected comprehensive operating surplus of $4.624 million and an underlying operating deficit of $376,000.
Key elements of Council’s 2026/27 Budget are:
Capital Works Program:
- $6.25 million – Buangor-Ben Nevis Road Upgrade
- $1.8 million – Rural gravel roads renewal through resheeting, sealing or OTTA seal treatments
- $1.457 million – Road reconstruction program
- $1 million – Urban road and laneway sealing or alternative treatment
- $750,000 – Urban drainage renewal
- $548,000 – New roundabout at the Queen Moore Street intersection
- $400,000 – Footpath and cycleway improvement program
- $400,000 – Bridge renewal program
- $300,000 – Kerb and channel renewal
New or significant projects and initiatives:
- $200,000 for the Moyston Recreation Reserve public toilet upgrade
- $100,000 for a walking track around the Pomonal Recreation Reserve oval, supported by the Victorian Government’s Pomonal Council Support Fund for the 2024 bushfires
- $100,000 for young people’s programs across schools, largely through the Crazy Ideas College
- $100,000 for Community Support Grants
- $100,000 for the successful business Façade Improvement and Kick Start Grants programs
- $90,000 contribution to Grampians Wimmera Mallee Tourism
- $55,000 for Youth Events, Activities and Happenings (YEAH Crew), supported by the Victorian Government’s Engage! program
- $53,174 for development of digital permit application forms to provide more options for the community to interact with Council
- $10,000 for new multicultural events
- Continued delivery of the $7.38 million enabling infrastructure project to unlock housing at the Prestige Mill site, funded by the Australian Government’s Housing Support Program
Download the adopted Annual Budget 2026/27 below.