The harness racing industry is a significant user of water particularly on race and training tracks where water is essential for maintaining the surface for its use.
This project will see Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) investigate and trial the use of alternative harness racing track surface materials to determine their effectiveness at reducing water demand while also remaining acceptable for training and racing purposes.
The trial site will be Bendigo Harness Racing Track – one of Victoria’s largest harness racing facilities – with one race track and two training tracks.
This project looks to utilise existing research into alternate track materials and expand it to field trials of various materials on a section of the training track to determine if any are suitable for use in harness racing while significantly reducing the water requirement.
This research will undertake a direct comparison between the various materials tested and make recommendations regarding the most appropriate options.
In the event that the project identifies a suitable option, HRV will lay the new surface at the new $40million harness racing facility. In addition, HRV will incorporate the results in future planning processes with the view to incorporating the chosen water wise materials into further tracks across Victoria.
