‘Neglected’: Victoria’s 10 worst roads revealed in new campaign

A long-awaited and highly scrutinised campaign has revealed the 10 most dangerous roads in one state.

Victoria’s 10 worst roads have been revealed by the Liberals and Nationals as part of a bold new campaign to highlight the state government’s failures in road maintenance.

The state opposition called on Victorians to name and shame the state’s most dangerous roads earlier this year as part of a multi-month initiative that received thousands of votes.

The results are now in and the Great Alpine Rd, between Bairnsdale in East Gippsland and Wangaratta in the state’s north east, took home the unwanted title of Victoria's worst road “by a significant margin”.

Respondents cited the poor state of the road’s surface and regular closures due to landslides as reasons why.

Landslides are known to occur along Great Alpine Rd.

Other roads featured in the top 10 included various locations along the Princes Highway and Western Freeway, Melbourne-Lancefield Rd, and Traralgon-Maffra Rd.

The top 10 worst roads in Victoria:

1. Great Alpine Rd
2. Princes Highway (various locations)
3. Melbourne-Lancefield Rd
4. Traralgon-Maffra Rd
5. Paynesville Rd
6. Woolsthorpe-Heywood Rd
7. Heathcote-Nagambie Rd
8. Murray Valley Highway (various locations)
9. Western Freeway (various locations)
10. Jerusalem Creek Rd

Shadow opposition roads spokesman Danny O’Brien blamed the state government for unsafe roads across Victoria.

“Labor cut the road maintenance budget by 10 per cent in its first year and has neglected our roads ever since,” he said.

“We’re seeing the result of these cuts in poor roads that are unsafe for drivers right around the state.

Gippsland South MP Danny O'Brien (left) said the government had caused roads to become unsafe across Victoria. Picture: Supplied.

“The poor roads highlighted by Victorians include local and state-managed roads, showing the impact of Labor’s budget cuts and the axing of the Country Roads and Bridges Program for local councils.”

The campaign got off to an inauspicious start when it was launched back in April after it was discovered that drone vision used on its website was actually stock footage of a damaged road in Ukraine.

The stock footage that was used of the damaged road in Ukraine for the state opposition's campaign. Picture: Supplied

The video, which was from 2019 and sourced from major generic footage provider iStock, was quickly removed.

Victoria’s Roads Minister Ben Carroll called the blunder “quite insensitive” and “amateurish” at the time.

“The main feature of that campaign was not a road from Victoria, not even a road from Australia, but it was a road from Ukraine,” he said.

Roads Minister Ben Carroll said the launch of the campaign was ‘quite insensitive’ and ‘amateurish’ Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brendan Beckett

“It’s quite insensitive at the present time and I thought for seven years of opposition all they’ve got to show is another competition and East West Link.

“They’ve got a lot more work to do, but I just thought it showed a very amateurish performance from the opposition.”

Mr O’Brien said the results of their poll would be forwarded to Mr Carroll.

Originally published as ‘Neglected’: Victoria’s 10 worst roads revealed in new campaign