Mount Gambier Rail Trail set to become Australia's longest solar lit pathway
City of Mount Gambier chose Australia’s leading SMART solar lighting providers, Leadsun, to illuminate the popular Mount Gambier Rail Trail – providing night-time safety, visibility and security to the city’s residents and its estimated half a million annual visitors.
The design, supply, and installation of 160 SMART solar lights along approximately 9kms of pathway will make this project one of Australia’s largest ever solar pathway lighting projects, comparable to Leadsun Australia’s previous installations at Blue Lake and Wollondilly River. The project is underway and expected to be fully completed in time for Christmas!
Safe & sustainable lighting to enhance Australia’s premiere tourist destination
An abandoned, ‘off-limits’ railway line for many years, the Mount Gambier Rail Trail is a prominent feature of Mount Gambier’s walkability and connects many popular tourist attractions including the Engelbrecht Cave, Cave Garden/Thugi and the Umpherston Sinkhole to the town centre. Illumination of the popular trail will continue to improve Mount Gambier’s sustainability, safety and walkability whilst cementing its reputation as one of Australia’s premiere tourist destinations.
The SMART solar lighting illumination of the Mount Gambier Rail Trail will be another one of Leadsun’s many rail trail pathway lighting projects. Leadsun’s recent solar ‘rail trail’ pathway lighting installation at the Wonthaggi Rail Trail continues to receive widespread praise from both the community and tourists for improving evening safety and walkability along the Bass Coast. Former rail infrastructure is increasingly being repurposed to create ‘rail trails’ that connect vital parts of towns and promote outdoor exercise – lighting these pathways further enhances community safety, security, and equity while extending the functioning hours of these valuable council assets.
Combatting energy poverty with the Gift of Light
Additionally, the Mount Gambier Rail Trail SMART solar lighting project will kickstart the ‘1-for-1 donations’ as a part of Leadsun & SolarBuddy’s Gift of Light initiative program. The Gift of Light initiative aims to reduce global energy poverty that is responsible for approximately 3.8 million premature deaths annually. As part of the ‘1-for-1 donation’, Leadsun will donate one JuniorBuddy, a portable solar light approximately the size of a large smartphone, for every solar light installed.
For this major project, we will be donating 160 JuniorBuddy lights to children in Papua New Guinea living in extreme energy poverty. A JuniorBuddy light donation improves health, educational, environmental, and economical outcomes for children and families living in extreme energy poverty.
The Gift of Light initiative is now available to local governments and includes 1-for-1 donations and educational workshops. Contact our team to find out if your next solar lighting project qualifies. Help us give the Gift of Light and lift children out of darkness.
