Andrews-Allan government 10 years: Regional Victoria’s worst regional roads

Ten years on from when Dan Andrews first swept Labor to power, many regional roads across the state are still in need of repair. Here are ten of the roughest across Victoria.

A decade ago, Daniel Andrews swept Labor to power in Spring St after only four years in opposition.

As premier, Mr Andrews established Regional Roads Victoria to deal with the thorny policy issue ahead of the 2018 election.

Based in Ballarat, RRV was quietly dropped as a subsidiary of VicRoads last year — a development only made public when uncovered by The Weekly Times almost 12 months later.

Instead, the-now Jacinta Allan-led government has tackled the road funding issue by announcing specific roads set for upgrades — with a ‘road funding blitz’ publicised last month.

Here’s 10 rough regional roads — some which are on State Roads Minister Melissa Horne’s to-do list, while some have fallen by the wayside:

MALLACOOTA-GENOA RD

Thousands of dollars worth of damage was caused to vehicles on Mallacoota-Genoa Road after sealing works went wrong in 2021.

The annual pilgrimage to Mallacoota for thousands of holiday-makers is just around the corner.

The worst part of the trip remains the final 26km from the Genoa turn-off with the road deteriorating even more since the tourists headed home last summer.

Most angst for locals is $10 million sitting in the coffers ready to fix their road, but the project is still not in first gear.

“It’s farcical that it takes so long to design and implement road safety improvements in our state, and the complete lack of urgency is a disgrace,” Gippsland MP Darren Chester said.

“Even when they don’t have to spend a cent of their own money, the state government is slow to act in East Gippsland.”

SOUTH GIPPSLAND HIGHWAY

Close to 3000 potholes were repaired on the South Gippsland Highway in a four-month period last year.

But the highway is still in poor condition with warning signs and speed restrictions.

One area near Stony Creek is particularly bad with a 60km/h speed restriction.

The stretch between Koonwarra and Meeniyan, known as the Black Spur, was completed in 2022, but similar investment is needed on other parts.

South Gippsland councillor Brad Snell is calling for funding to fix the South Gippsland Highway. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Freshly-elected South Gippsland Shire councillors such as Brad Snell and mayor John Schelling say securing additional state investment in the namesake highway and other state-run thoroughfares was a priority in 2025.

“The council receives regular feedback regarding the unsatisfactory condition of the road and, unfortunately, the speed of asset deterioration appears to have be accelerated by the severe weather events which are frequent in South Gippsland,” Mayor Schelling said.

MURRAY VALLEY HIGHWAY

An entire stretch between Rutherglen and Bundalong is in desperate need of repair after major works were carried out between Echuca and Yarrawonga.

Of particular concern is a section west of Rutherglen near many of the region’s famous wineries that is littered with deep potholes and crumbling shoulders.

Speed restrictions have been in place for months.

Patching work gets carried out, but is short-lived with the large amount of heavy tracks forced to travel on the road undoing the quick-fix work and frustrating locals.

MELBA HIGHWAY

The Melba Highway between Coldstream and Yea came out on top as the state’s most unsafe road in a RACV survey this year. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The road between Coldstream and Yea topped the 2024 RACV My Country Road survey for the state’s most unsafe road after also making the list when the survey was last carried out in 2021.

Particularly of concern for survey respondents were the amount of potholes, the poor condition of the road and limited overtaking opportunities.

One positive for frustrated users of this road is that 16 of the 21 most unsafe roads from the 2021 survey had repair works carried out.

TYLDEN-WOODEND RD

If the squeaking wheel gets the grease, then perhaps the squarking motorist gets the road funds.

Tylden-Woodend Rd was pipped at the post by the Melba Highway in the 2024 RACV My Country Road survey by the barest of margins.

The country thoroughfare, south of Kyneton, runs through the Macedon Ranges electorate held by Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas.

She announced last month Tylden-Woodend Rd would form part of a statewide roadworks blitz, four months after the release of the RACV survey.

“These roads have been prioritised based on expert assessments and community feedback, ensuring that upgrades are focused where local drivers need them most,” she said last month.

PRINCES HIGHWAY WEST

Twisting and turning like a highway equivalent of the Luna Park rollercoaster, a few kilometres of the Princes Highway West at Pirron Yallock are notorious in southwest Victoria.

About equidistant between Camperdown and Pirron Yallock, the Stony Rises section connecting Pomborneit and Pirron Yallock has been reduced to 80km/h with roadworks signs affixed east and west.

Yet massive potholes still riddle the Stony Roses link, forcing many vehicles to swerve to the roadside edge near where the Koala Motel once stood.

The Stony Rises section has made frequent appearances in the RACV’s My Country Roads surveys, again included in the top-10 in 2024.

GLENELG HIGHWAY

Only 29 kilometres of Glenelg Highway bitumen links Casterton and Coleraine in southwest Victoria. But for the relatively short distance, the potholed thoroughfare has generated more than its fair share of headlines.

The Coleraine-Casterton link was attracting criticism for poor maintenance as far back as the Baillieu-Napthine Coalition government, with the Andrews government failing to fix the highway to local satisfaction in the past decade.

Lowan MP Emma Kealy said the Coleraine-Casterton potholed path could not be blamed on wet weather alone, with significant deterioration during dry years too.

“Our roads have never been as bad as they are now, and despite Labor’s ridiculous attempts in parliament to do a Milli Vanilli and ‘Blame it on the Rain’, we all know that there’s only one reason our roads are so poor, and that’s Labor’s incompetence,” the opposition MP said.

HENTY HIGHWAY

Mathew Roberts with one of the two tyres and rims that were ruined when he hit a pothole on the Henty Highway at Hamilton in 2010.

Way back in the 2010 election year, Mathew Roberts generated headlines after he took an unorthodox approach to dealing with his pothole frustration.

Two tyres on the young motorist’s vehicle were ruined when he hit a pothole on the Henty Highway near Hamilton.

He has sent VicRoads a bill for the damage but the roads authority refused to admit liability.

More than a decade on, the Andrews government confirmed parts of the Henty Highway would receive funds, but Mr Roberts’ area of concern — the section near Branxholme, south of Hamilton — was seemingly not included.

BACCHUS MARSH RD

When Mel Gibson was a little-known actor back in the late 1970s, he tore around the country roads north of Geelong for a little movie he was making called Mad Max.

More than four decades on, the main road cutting through the setting for the 1979 cinematic masterpiece is something of a modern-day horror movie.

The thoroughfare connecting the northern suburbs of Geelong to Bacchus Marsh has been the site of several fatal crashes in the past decade.

During that time, Lara, at the southern end of the road, has gained a number of new neighbourhoods, as has the expanding Bacchus Marsh/Melton region.

Much of the formerly 100kmh-zoned highway is now classified as 80km/h, gaining criticism from locals and freight operators who frequent the western suburban to regional centre link.

DIMBOOLA-RAINBOW RD

The federal electorate of Mallee covers more than a third of Victoria and has no shortage of bad roads.

But at the top of the list for Mallee MP Anne Webster is the C227 road or what locals refer to as the Dimboola-Rainbow and Rainbow-Hopetoun roads.

“It is atrocious,” she said.

“The angled railway crossing at Rainbow has lost much of its bitumen due in parts to big rains and harvests in recent years.

“I see a lot of terrible, neglected roads due to the Albanese and Allan Labor governments’ dangerous lack of spending.”

Originally published as Andrews-Allan government 10 years: Regional Victoria’s worst regional roads