It's been 2360 days since a Victorian premier visited Warrnambool in an official capacity.
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Daniel Andrews stood on Warrnambool's train station platform on July 21, 2017 and declared the line had been "stuck".
"People have talked about upgrading this line for a very long time and it just hasn't happened," he told the media.
"That's held this community back and it's meant this community has not had its fair share."
Indeed we haven't.
Those train line upgrades are still ongoing - a project Mr Andrews at the time suggested would take 12 to 18 months - and the promise of new trains rings hollow.
About this time in 2023 we made an impassioned plea for Mr Andrews and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to come to the south-west and experience our dilapidated roads. Repeated calls fell on deaf ears.
Then when Mr Andrews stepped down as premier and retired from politics, we called for the state's new leader, Jacinta Allan, to do what her predecessor hadn't in six years and come to Warrnambool.
On her first day on the job back in September Ms Allan declared she would be in the regions more.
We have made at least six requests for an interview with Ms Allan and still we wait.
We hope the beginning of a new year will bring with it renewed interest from the premier's office in our great region, which after all injects more than $5.8 billion into the state's economy.
We have much to talk about with Ms Allan. As the former transport minister she knows all about our train service. Why, after hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent, are we yet to see any benefits?
Then there's our roads. The Princes Highway west of Colac gives motorists insights into life as a bull rider at a rodeo. Then there is the Hamilton Highway, the Hopkins Highway, the Heywood-Woolsthorpe Road and the list goes on and on.
And then there's health. Warrnambool Base Hospital's $384m redevelopment gets underway this year but despite an estimated 14 per cent or $50m rise in building costs, it's the only major health build the government hasn't increased the budget for in the past three years. The government maintains the scope of the project is unchanged but our sources have revealed an underground car park - critical to the project - is on the chopping block. This can't be cut.
We have campaigned for more than six years for a residential alcohol and drug rehabilitation centre to be established here yet the south-west is the only area in the state without one.
So today we respectfully invite Ms Allan to Warrnambool. We have lots of questions and she no doubt has lots of answers. No matter how you look at it, 2360 days without a visit from the state's premier is too long.
It's time, long overdue, late, just like our trains.
