It first popped up inside the old Warilla police station, a dank shell set to morph into youth accommodation due to a $2.6 million federal grant.

"This is the very place you probably would have been trying to keep out of not so long ago," the Minister for Regional Australia and Regional Development joked with a trio of assembled teenagers.

Later, during a stroll through Crown St Mall - where the former Labor leader received something of a rock-star reception, it happened again.

"Well, it does need some work," he observed of the soon-to-be revamped shopping strip.

But later, during an address to the region's business, industry and political heavyweights, Mr Crean delivered the day's most blunt assessment - don't expect the Government to stump up every cent of the $600 million needed to build the Maldon-Dombarton rail link.

"This [project] is something that, in the end, you know has got to be done and the sooner the better," he said.

"So what we have to do is work creatively to make it happen [but] you're not going to make it happen sooner if you simply say to the Commonwealth 'you give us all the money'."

During an earlier interview with the Mercury, Mr Crean said businesses that would use the line, including mining companies, had an obligation to help fund its construction.

"Of course they do," he said. "What people have to face up to is if you simply call on government to fund it and fund it alone, you're inevitably going to be disappointed either at the amount that can be put in at any one time or the period over which it happens."

He also suggested revenue from the mining tax could feasibly help to fund the Federal Government's share.

Mr Crean pointed to his pledge to fund a third of the $15 million Crown St Mall upgrade, along with half the $5.2 million transformation of the Warilla police station into the Southern Community Hub and Youth Foyer, as good examples of joint funding arrangements.

The projects secured funding this week out of the $200 million second round of the Regional Development Australia Fund.

There would be three more rounds before the next election, Mr Crean told yesterday's Regional Development Australia Illawarra's regional leaders update luncheon.

The Federal Government last year pledged $25 million to make the Maldon-Dombarton line "shovel ready".

Pre-construction activities will begin during the coming financial year.