It came as part of a wider announcement from the Yass Valley Council and the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) for shelters across Yass Valley, with one in Yass and Bowning and two in Gundaroo, but Murrumbateman came away the big winner with nine. 

The locations for the shelters were determined in a survey conducted by the MPA, and are as follows: 

Yass Valley Councillor and MPA member Mike Reid believes that the bus shelters will do a great deal of good for the village, and expressed his delight and surprise that Murrumbateman secured so many. 

“We’ve been looking to get in some bus shelters for quite a while,” Cr Reid said. 

“Getting nine was, to me, quite significant because the price that they are and the way you go about trying to fund these things, I didn’t think we had hope of getting more than one or two shelters.”

Although nine shelters is far beyond what he expected, Cr Reid believes there is still room for more improvement in Murrumbateman’s public transport network. 

“There’s a little bit more to go yet, because there are people all over Murrumbateman and some of them can’t drive or walk down to the highway to get buses,” he said. 

“There’s now some talk … people are saying could we get the bus people to perhaps tour around one or two of the estates and do a pickup there?” 

He also mentioned a desire for more Park ‘n’ Rides in Murrumbateman. 

“What happens is we get a lot of people parking at Jones’ Park [to board the bus], and then of course the tourists that are coming through can’t park in the [car]park there,” Cr Reid said. 

“So that’s another issue that we might have a look at, trying to get another Park ‘n’ Ride.”