Councils within the Western Highway Action Committee have finalised an advocacy document pressing state and opposition figures for upgrades to the freight corridor, claiming the infrastructure is not keeping up with the region’s population growth.
Who? The Western Highway Action Committee is a collaboration of 10 councils from Melton through to the South Australian border, including the likes of Ararat Rural City Council, Northern Grampians Shire Council and Horsham Rural City Council. It was founded in 1999.
Moorabool Shire Councillor Rod Ward is currently the committee’s chair.
What happened? At a council meeting on September 2, Councillor Ward said the committee had finalised an advocacy document highlighting the need for major work to the road, released to both the government and opposition.
Members of the committee met with the Shadow Minister for Transport infrastructure, Matthew Guy, and Shadow Minister for Roads and Safety, Danny O’Brien. Councillor Ward said they have written to the current Minister for Roads, Paul Hamer, seeking a meeting as well.
The focus: Councillor Ward told the chamber the region had been “left behind”, with no significant work along the Western Highway since the Deer Park bypass in 2009.
He added that when the Ring Road opened in 1999, Melton, Bacchus Marsh and Ballarat had a combined population of "about 127,000”, but the corridor's population is now projected to top 700,000 people within a decade.
The committee are advocating for works to improve capacity, reduce fatalities on the stretch and future-proof the route for the growing region.
What people said: Moorabool Shire Mayor Steven Venditti-Taylor told the Brolga that the “patch, repair and move on” process of road maintenance in the region is not working.
“We deserve safe, reliable roads, everyone deserves it,” he said. “So many different people are using it - farmers, families, emergency services, businesses.”
He said a lot of the committee’s work is pushing for bigger-picture thinking and forward planning, stating that “if we’re just going to throw some tar in a hole, there’s a fair chance we’ll do it again in 12 months”.
“It's not about politics, it’s about making sure rural communities are looked after,” the Mayor said. “At the end of the day, we’ve been neglected for way too long”.
Looking back: A portion of the Western Highway, between Ballarat and Stawell, has been labelled “the death stretch” with more than 170 crashes between 2015 and 2024. It’s just one of many lengths of road in the region in desperate need of repair.
In May, Federal MP Catherine King, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, and Regional Development announced works to duplicate portions of the Western Highway were going ahead after funds totalling over $1 billion were allocated in both the federal and state budget.