Victorian Minister for Sport and Recreation, Damian Drum made the announcement alongside candidates for Ripon, Scott Turner (The Nationals) and Louise Staley (Liberal) during a visit to the club on Thursday.

The $27,123 funding is part of the Victorian Shooting Sports Facilities Program (SSFP) helping shooting clubs and associations build the capacity of the sport and increase participation throughout the state.

Mr Drum said that funding is part of the Coalition's commitment to people of regional Victoria.

"This was another opportunity for the State Government to invest in a regional facility," he said.

"The funding is going to enable the club to bring access to all their setup, to make things much safer, introduce more young people to the sport and effectively give them the facilities that they have so longingly needed.

"Shooting clubs play an active part in regional communities, and upgrades will help grow the sport and get more participants involved."

On top of the $27,000 grant, the Ararat Clay Target Club will add a further $6,784 in cash and in-kind contributions, along with the Ararat Rural City Council which will match that contribution, bringing the project's total to $40,691.

Mr Turner said the funding will provide badly-needed upgrades for the local facility.

"This funding will go towards replacing the old concrete trap lanes, installing new fencing around shooting areas and improving club accessibility by building concrete paths around the club house," he said.

"Congratulations to Ararat Clay Target Club for raising a significant amount of cash that was matched by the Council and helped get this project moving."

The Ararat Clay Target Club is hopeful the project will be compete by late January in time for the first shoot of 2015 in February.