By Adam Carey
There are few places in Melbourne where the divide between city and country looks so stark as while driving along Yan Yean Road.
To the west, there are new estates filled with freestanding houses squeezed together on modest blocks with tiny yards. This is the growth suburb of Doreen, population 27,000 and rising. To the east, there are rolling paddocks dotted with grand river red gums. This is the other Doreen, a place of country homesteads, egg farms and pony clubs.
Hurstbridge resident Mel Ellis (left) is leading the campaign against the intersection design of Yan Yean Road, with Belinda Thomas and Sue Green.Credit: Simon Schluter
Yan Yean Road also exemplifies Doreen’s city-country divide. It’s a critical and congested arterial road for Melbourne’s outer north-east, carrying 24,000 vehicles a day. But for half of its length it still resembles the country road it once was: narrow and undivided, with no footpaths or space for cyclists.
Plans to fix the road date back to 2015. The southern half has already been widened and made safer. A decade on, the northern section awaits its turn.
“We need this road upgrade, no one’s questioning that,” says Tony Casey, a veteran real estate agent who has worked in Melbourne’s outer north for more than 40 years.
But the Allan government faces a growing revolt over its long-planned road upgrade, both from Doreen business owners whose stores will be bypassed once the upgrade is built and from residents of semi-rural Hurstbridge, who fear the widened road will direct more commuter traffic into their quiet suburb.
The upgraded road will change access to the Doreen business precinct, a cluster of about 30 mostly small businesses and a handful of fast-food franchises, and render the shopping area less visible to passing traffic.
It will also double capacity at the start of Doctors Gully Road, a narrow road that winds through rural Doreen to Hurstbridge.
Doreen traders fear their stores will be less accessible, and less visible to passing traffic if the design preferred by a government agency is built.
“These are mum and dad businesses. A lot of them employ apprentices and kids; they’re now going to be bypassed,” said Belinda Thomas, who owns a property agency in the shopping district.
‘Sadly, what will happen is, it’ll be a slow death.’
Real estate agent Tony Casey’s concern for Doreen businesses
Casey, who developed the Doreen shopping area and leases out many of the retail spaces, fears that many will be put out of business.
“Sadly, what will happen is, it’ll be a slow death. There’s no doubt. I’ve been doing property for 45 years and I’ve seen it before,” he said.
Casey has brought a political edge to the campaign, putting up three extra large billboards on the district’s most prominent corner.
“Yan Yean Road Upgrade. Labor wasting our Taxpayer Money,” one reads. Last week, two of the billboards were knocked over.
The Doreen General Store and Post Office, pictured in 2018.Credit: Justin McManus
The government agency Major Roads Project Victoria chose the design option called Option B, from three possible choices in 2021, following an environment effects statement. The design saves two ancient river red gums, and protects the landmark Doreen General Store and Post Office.
Whittlesea and Nillumbik councils have both urged the department to select Option C, which was rejected four years ago but is now the subject of two aligned community campaigns calling for its revival.
About 60 residents of Hurstbridge met last week. There, Mel Ellis, who is leading the campaign against Option B, warned it would funnel more traffic onto the suburb’s rural roads and single-lane bridge.
“It would be pretty tempting to head down Doctors Gully Road, but then you’ll see that that four-lane road quickly becomes a windy country road,” she said.
Nillumbik Shire Council said it had several concerns with Option B, including that it would urbanise a green wedge area. Option C, by contrast, would protect significant trees, swallow less land and retain the area’s existing rural feel, the council said.
Nillumbik Mayor John Dumaresq said Melbourne’s green wedges belong to people in new housing estates just as much as those who call them home.
He doubts the state government will reverse its decision at this advanced stage of the project.
“But they stopped the East West Link, so you never know,” he said.
Labor’s MP for Yan Yean, Lauren Kathage, said the government had listened to the community and was ready to move forward with construction. The poor state of Yan Yean Road was the biggest issue the community raises with her, she said.
“In my community, families don’t have time to head to an endless cycle of meetings about the road. They are too busy getting home from work, getting dinner going, taking their kids to cricket training. They just want to see the road done so they can get home sooner and safer, and I do too,” Kathage said.
A Major Roads Project Victoria spokesperson said investigations had found upgrading Yan Yean would reduce the rat run along Doctors Gully Road, and that Option B would minimise disruption to the Doreen business precinct during construction.
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