Thursday, 1 September 2022

Coniston Avenue–Princes Highway, Berwick

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (17:08): (6530) My adjournment is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and I ask the minister to attend my electorate at the intersection of Coniston Avenue and Princes Highway opposite the Berwick botanical gardens. One of the local residents, Shaun, approached our office in relation to the dangers of crossing that road. There are school bus stops on both sides of the highway, where we have seen some issues and near accidents in the past. Tragically in 2017 Mick Moreland, who was a known councillor—many knew him from this place—was killed at that intersection when he was crossing the road. Since then I know his wife has been very active in trying to get a set of lights at that intersection. Kay, who I still speak to, is probably one of the most amazing people in the world. After that accident, which was no fault at all of the young 19-year-old driver of the car who hit Mick, Kay went out of her way 12 months later to go out for coffee with him to let him know that there was nothing that he could have done in those circumstances. However, it does not take away the issue with that dangerous intersection.

During COVID—I know it sounds a bit different—it actually became more dangerous, not for the fact that COVID affected the intersection, but it did become a very public spot, the botanical gardens in Berwick. It was somewhere that a lot of people had been as aware of as much. They would travel outside of the area to go to local parks, but with the 5-kilometre radius this became a central spot for families to go out to a lot. There is a fair bit of parking, but on major event days now they have to park across the road, and it is becoming a bigger issue. It has highlighted some of these issues of people crossing the road there. You cannot park on the highway. The council and VicRoads rightfully stopped people parking along the highway because it was causing too many dangers, which included someone losing their door when they opened it. Families ended up walking along the highway with prams and children, which obviously is very dangerous and not something any of us want to encourage. We have to find a way now that people can cross safely.

The final part of that, which Shaun has seen firsthand, is watching students getting dropped off or picked up by the bus on the other side of the highway from the residential side. To cross that road, it is on a ridge. Sight-wise it is not that great, so this is something that I think needs to be addressed fairly quickly. We would like the minister to come out, meet with Shaun, have a chat to some of the locals out there and look at options for what we can do to improve that intersection for the future of the community.