29/08/2026
FIX THE BLOODY ROADS.
The current state of our roads around Clunes and the surrounding area is absolutely atrocious — and more importantly, downright dangerous.
Potholes are everywhere. This has gone well beyond being an inconvenience or a rough ride. People's vehicles are being damaged, and sooner or later somebody is going to be seriously injured or killed.
I honestly don't know how a motorcycle rider hasn't already lost their life because of some of these roads.
When you're driving along and suddenly come across multiple potholes covering your side of the road, while another vehicle is coming towards you in the opposite lane, what exactly are you supposed to do?
Hit the potholes and potentially damage your vehicle?
Swerve left off the road and onto the grass?
Or cross towards the other lane and risk a head-on collision?
That's not a choice anybody should have to make.
At the end of the road where we live, there's a sharp blind bend with potholes right where you need to drive. To avoid them, you have to move towards the other side of the road — except you can't see what's coming around that bend.
It's basically a lottery: risk damaging your car, or risk having an accident trying to avoid damaging it.
And there's another safety issue here. Constantly scanning for potholes, suddenly braking, swerving and trying to decide which hole you're going to hit takes your attention away from everything else happening on the road. It reduces the time and attention you have available to react to other hazards.
I'm personally fed up with it.
And I'm not just talking about the possibility of these roads damaging vehicles.
My own car is now booked into the mechanic because the front end has been absolutely hammered. My shock absorbers are leaking, the ball joints need attention, and my tyres have been shredded.
That's money coming directly out of my pocket.
And I will be making a claim for the cost of these repairs because I believe the responsible road authority should be held accountable for damage caused by roads that have been allowed to deteriorate to this condition.
Some of these potholes simply CANNOT be safely avoided.
I'm not going to put my life, my passengers' lives or somebody else's life at risk just to save a tyre or suspension component.
I'd also encourage other locals who regularly drive these roads and are concerned about possible damage to have their vehicles checked by their local mechanic.
If people have suffered damage they believe was caused by the condition of these roads, document it. Get photographs. Keep your invoices and reports. Report the road damage and consider making a claim with the responsible road authority.
Maybe when the authorities start seeing the true cost being borne by ordinary motorists, they'll realise it would be better to spend the money fixing these roads PROPERLY in the first place.
And here's something else Victorians should know.
Under Victoria's Road Management Act, the current statutory threshold for property-damage claims arising from the condition of a road is $1,681. For the current financial year, damage at or below that amount is subject to that statutory limitation, and even where liability for a larger claim is established, the threshold affects the amount recoverable.
So we're expected to maintain roadworthy vehicles, pay our registration and keep our cars safe — yet motorists can potentially be left carrying a substantial part of the cost when those vehicles are damaged by the very roads we're required to drive on.
How is that fair?
I've previously worked in the building industry. Almost everything in that industry is regulated and has to meet standards and codes. Why? Because poor workmanship can cause injury, death and property damage.
Our vehicles are required to meet safety standards as well.
So why shouldn't the roads themselves be held to an appropriate standard?
We work hard for our money.
We pay our taxes.
We pay our rego.
We maintain our vehicles and are expected to keep them roadworthy.
We should not then have our hard-earned property destroyed — or worse, our lives put at risk — because the roads aren't capable of handling the traffic they're carrying.
I've personally gone out and measured asphalt thickness in some areas and found sections around 20–30 mm thick.
I've also spoken with a road contractor who made some concerning claims to me about why roads and repairs may sometimes be laid thin. I can't independently verify what I was told, so I'm not going to present it as fact.
But it raises a bloody important question:
WHERE IS THE OVERSIGHT?
Who checks the quality and thickness of these roads after they're constructed?
Who checks the quality of repairs?
Who determines whether the work is actually fit for purpose?
And when a repair fails again within months, who is held accountable for the public money that was spent on it?
I'm sick and tired of temporary patch jobs that fail again and again.
And ultimately, all these issues matter — but we need to get to the ROOT CAUSE.
Why are these roads continually failing in the first place?
These roads need to be built and repaired to a standard capable of sustaining the ACTUAL traffic using them — heavy trucks, some with gross weights of up to around 60 tonnes, farm machinery, commercial vehicles, cars and motorcycles.
Stop endlessly patching the symptom and start fixing the cause.
BUILD THEM PROPERLY. FIX THEM PROPERLY.
I've driven extensively around Australia, and the difference when you leave Victoria can be bloody obvious. I've driven through New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, and in my experience you can cross back into Victoria and think:
What the hell happened to the roads?
Other states have heavy vehicles. Other states have weather. Other states have freight and agricultural traffic.
So why do we seem unable to keep so many of our roads in reasonable condition?
This isn't Labor versus Liberal, left versus right, or whichever government happens to be sitting in office at the time.
I'm sick of governments and authorities of every persuasion passing responsibility around while basic infrastructure deteriorates.
And to be clear about responsibility: Ballarat–Maryborough Road and Clunes–Creswick Road are state-managed roads, rather than roads controlled by Hepburn Shire Council. So this isn't simply a complaint to Council. The responsible Victorian Government road authorities need to answer for the roads under their control as well.
We're not interested in being passed from one department to another.
If it's a Council road, Council needs to deal with it.
If it's a State road, the State needs to deal with it.
JUST GET THE BLOODY THING FIXED.
And another thing — I've seen contractors marking only SOME of the potholes for repair.
We don't want some of them fixed.
WE WANT THEM ALL FIXED.
And we don't want roads sitting under reduced speed limits for months or years while everybody waits for a proper repair. We've already had to put up with situations like Gillies Road being speed-restricted for an extraordinary length of time.
Temporary signs are not a permanent solution.
Temporary patches are not a permanent solution.
And enough is enough.
WE'RE STARTING A PETITION.
A petition will be available at the Clunes Top Shop for anyone who wants to sign it.
We want as many locals as possible to get behind this. We'll be putting the signatures and complaints together and taking them to the relevant authorities — including Council and the Victorian Government where appropriate.
If these roads have damaged your vehicle, tell us about it in the comments.
If you've got photos of potholes or damage, post them.
If there's a particularly dangerous section of road that needs attention, tell us where it is.
Let's actually document how widespread this problem is.
Because this isn't about somebody whinging about a bumpy road.
This is about people's property.
This is about public money.
And most importantly, this is about people's lives.
Fix the bloody roads before somebody loses more than a tyre, a rim or a suspension component.
Because eventually, somebody could lose their life.
FIX THE BLOODY ROADS.
