If approved, the new centre will be located at south Bowning, indented to service the traffic bound north for Sydney. 

Despite its easy access from the Hume Highway and being some distance from the township of Bowning, proponents were confident it would economically strengthen the small town.

The centre will span 1.217 square kilometres and include a service station for light and heavy traffic, as well as four food vendors, two of which will be drive-through.

Albury-based developers, the Barker Group, are behind the proposal, submitted the proposal last week to Yass Valley Council. For the proponents to submit a development application they first have to amend the Local Environmnet Plan for zoning. 

“We identified the area as the perfect spot for the service centre, with no highway-facing service centre located over the 100 kilometer stretch of the Hume Highway between Yass and Gundagai,” proponent Travis Barker said. “And there is no highway-facing service centre between Yass and Marulan.”

The proposal suggests that the arterial road is ripe for growth in tourism and accommodating increased visitor and freight load, as well as providing a stop-over for refreshments and fuel. 

The Bowning township doesn’t presently facilitate fuel for motorists, and Mr Barker said his development would help strengthen the town's economic development and tourism flow.

“It will provide employment opportunities, especially for the youth, and help with competitive fuel prices,” he said. 

This proposal for a new service centre is one of two of it’s kind lodged with the council in the past three months.

The second was submitted in December of 2016, proposed for the site directly opposite the current service centre on Yass Valley Way, north Yass.

Mr Barker says the centre won’t compete with either the existing service centre or the proposed service station currently under review. 

“Our clientele will be people travelling towards Sydney, so we expect that it would alleviate some of the pressure on the current service centre, it would actually create its own business,” he said.

The land space already acquired by the proponents is on agricultural land on the Hume Highway and has been identified as unproductive.