‘Sick and tired of it’: Commuters demand Allan govt be transparent on full extent of 2023-24 road works

The Allan government has long claimed flooding events are to blame for the condition of Victorian roads — but have failed to publish a major piece of information on their road works program.

Victorian commuters have slammed the Allan government for blaming floods for the state’s road conditions.

Victorian commuters say they are “sick and tired” of the Allan government blaming floods and rainfall for the crumbling state of Victoria’s roads, demanding the full extent of road maintenance data be released to the public.

Figures on flood recovery road works undertaken in the past financial year remain shrouded in secrecy, the Herald Sun recently reporting that the data was “still being putting together” by the Department of Transport.

This is despite the Allan government citing “additional funding for flood recovery and maintenance works” as the reason for a $250m blowout to its road asset management budget in its latest annual report.

The findings mean Victorians have no way of knowing how many roads were repaired in the 2023-24 flood recovery program, despite being told these works had to take priority over larger-scale repair works across the state.

The Department of Transport did not include flood recovery road works in its latest annual report, only large scale works (red), and could not provide this data upon request. Picture: Department of Transport

The data that was released by the Department of Transport revealed resurfacing and rehabilitation works were slashed by 90 per cent across the state in the 2023-24 financial year.

Port Fairy retiree Alan Parker said the blame on the October 2022 and January 2024 flooding events had no merit in towns like his, where major roads had gone untouched.

“No government department is telling anybody anything probably because they’re all that far in the red,” Mr Parker said.

The Princes Hwy out of Port Fairy in 2018. Picture: Alan Parker

The same road as of 2024. Picture: Alan Parker

Mr Parker has been photographing the crumbling state of the Princes Hwy toward Warrnambool since 2018.

He submitted photos showing the near-unchanged state of a 5km strip from the main township for the Herald Sun’s worst pothole hunt, saying there had been “no major repairs” in at least six years to the road apart from “a couple of strips”.

“They come and throw mud in them every now and again but as soon as transport goes over them, the mud is gone,” he said.

“What gets up my goat really is that it’s the national highway — you’d think it would be the best road in Australia.”

Mr Parker said commuters regularly drive with one wheel off the road to avoid dropping into major defects along the town’s main thoroughfares.

“The trucks are doing the same thing. You can imagine what the sides of the roads are like,” he said.

“I live 10 minutes out of Port Fairy and I hate going into town simply because the road is that bad.

“People all over Victoria are just sick and tired of it.”

The state government expects long-term repairs should increase now that temporary flood recovery efforts have been rolled out.

A record $964m investment in road maintenance across the state from now until mid-2025 — the equivalent of $2.6m every day — was recently announced by the Allan government.

The “Windy Mile” in Diamond Creek remains in the lead as the state’s worst road, as voted by readers.