Surf Coast residents, visitors hit with backed up toilets, overflowing bins during weekend of summer chaos

Backed up and dirty toilets, overflowing bins, and parking chaos were among the issues holidaymakers on the Surf Coast faced on at the weekend. TAKE OUR POLL

Visitors to Portarlington were photographed parking on “any land they could find” on Saturday. Neville Mears, who has a holiday house at Portarlington, said more needed to be done to address overcrowding. Picture: Supplied/Kal Ayoubi

Overcrowding at Surf Coast tourism spots needs to be addressed as the population continues to increase, concerned locals say.

Armstrong Creek resident Matt Briggs said he was at Torquay front beach on January 6 and witnessed overcrowding.

He said bins were overflowing, public toilets were “backed up and very dirty”, and parking was chaotic, with people driving inside reserves.

“It’s really bad,” he said.

“(We) really need more rubbish bins out on these busy days, so many are full and overflowing.

Matt Briggs said a broken swing was just one example of damage at Torquay Front beach. Picture: Supplied

“Torquay will only get more popular as western suburbs of Melbourne and Geelong expands in coming years – don’t know what they will do.”

Mr Briggs said the issues over the weekend, which saw Saturday reach a high of 26C, showed the challenges the Surf Coast would face with a growth in popularity.

Surf Coast’s community life general manager Gail Gatt said council bins in high-use areas were emptied twice daily in the summer school holidays.

“Saturday was a busy summer day along the coast, and many bins were full,” Ms Gatt said.

“We encourage people to respect our environment and dispose of waste properly. This might mean taking their waste home to dispose of themselves, if public bins are full.”

Ms Gatt said visitors could call a free 1300 phone number, displayed on each bin, to report any issues.

“(This) is the quickest way to have the bins addressed, even after hours,” she said.

Council did not provide an answer for what could be done about the “chaos” amid the population’s forecasted increase.

The toilet blocks are managed by Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority.

An Authority spokeswoman said the on-call number did not receive any reports of issues at any beach toilet blocks, and there were extra ground patrols from Lorne to Torquay on both Saturday and Sunday.

“Our proactive strategy involved deploying extra patrols, intensifying litter collection efforts, and establishing a reporting phone number for issues such as litter or urgent maintenance,” she said.

The spokeswoman said in the previous year, the Authority allocated 550 hours during peak periods and 350 hours during off-peak times to do “extensive” beach and foreshore rubbish collection.

Meanwhile Neville Mears, who owns a holiday home in Portarlington, said there were also issues of overfilling at the Point Richards Rd boat ramp.

He said Saturday’s nice weather meant more people headed down to head out on boats, exacerbating the issue with the revamped area.

Mr Mears said the four ramps and surrounding area were upgraded, including with raised vegetation “islands”.

He said this made it “very impractical” to drive around, with “boaties” having to manoeuvre their cars, with boats loaded onto trailers, onto a ramp to unload the boat.

He said they then needed to drive within the confined space to find a park.

“The driving in and out and around can be not only frustrating but time wasting,” Mr Mears said.

“It’s not very practical.

“One car got stuck (Saturday), the next moment there were five cars lined up that couldn’t get past. Five vehicles quickly becomes 10 … it becomes pandemonium.”

Mr Mears said council should install a marshall to help manage the issue and help traffic move more smoothly.

Originally published as Surf Coast residents, visitors hit with backed up toilets, overflowing bins during weekend of summer chaos