#FixVicRoads: Mickleham family demand urgent upgrades to Forest Red Gum Dr, Mickleham
IMickleham’s population has boomed nearly tenfold in just ten years — but local families say without vital road upgrades, the once peaceful drive through town is now a daily danger.
Victoria
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In just a decade, the northern metropolitan suburb of Mickleham has been transformed from sprawling farmland to bustling fence-to-fence housing estates.
Population has grown nearly tenfold from 3000 people to a huge 28,000 since 2016 — and that number is expected to continue to climb to a massive 60,000 within the next 20 years.
The roads just aren’t keeping up, locals Ally and Dorian White say.
The couple took the Herald Sun to one of the area’s dangerous thoroughfares, Forest Red Gum Dr, which was designed as a rural road, but was repurposed as an urban link to Craigieburn in 2020.
More than 10,000 vehicles use the road everyday according to Hume City Council, leaving the road a minefield of corrugations, cracks, dips and jaggered potholes.
“It’s pretty shocking,” Mr White said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone actually actively working down here and filling those potholes in.”
Ms White said the road was often bottlenecked with traffic, with drivers performing dangerous overtaking maneuvers across driveways to get out of the estate. It’s only going to get worse come winter, she said.
“As a mum, getting in a car has been pretty daunting ever since I’ve had my baby, but not having secure, stable roads to get him from A to B is even more daunting,” Ms White said.
“It adds to that stress, you get so anxious. You can’t control what other drivers are doing, you can only control yourself, and when the road is not supporting you in that, it becomes so much more scary.
“We understand that this is a developing area, however the roads and the safety of the patrons living here was not considered. We need to feel safe getting from A to B just to do daily essentials. We need our roads fixed.”
Hume City Council said it had received just three pothole reports on Snap, Send, Solve for the road, “all of which have been solved”.
Snap, Send, Solve reports increased by 50 per cent last year in Hume City — but the council said road reports made up just two per cent of all reports, and that reports of potholes dropped 10 per cent in the last 12 months.
A spokesperson for the council said crews undertook weekly inspections and repairs at Forrest Red Gum Dr.
Stilll, the council resolved in Feburary to fund an upgrade of the road to achieve “a better standard for users”, and said since opening as an urban link, the stretch had needed “significant and ongoing council maintenance”.
Mr White said the few number of pothole reports weren’t evidence of bettered road conditions, but residents becoming accustomed to the bumpy drive.
“I certainly think the residents just tolerate it,” he said.
“Sounds to me like the council is just trying to put their head in the sand.”
Join the Herald Sun’s Fix Victorian Roads movement by using the hashtag #FixVicRoads on social media.
Originally published as #FixVicRoads: Mickleham family demand urgent upgrades to Forest Red Gum Dr, Mickleham
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