Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (19:20): (1677) My adjournment is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action that I seek is an urgent onsite meeting with VicRoads in Yarrawonga to assess some major safety issues. The Murray Valley Highway runs through Yarrawonga in an east–west direction. Many, many heavy vehicles use that road. It also has local town traffic from other towns – Cobram, Echuca – going to Albury and also just local traffic from Yarrawonga and Mulwala. In 2020 we were very grateful to see Bunnings come to town. They set up on the corner of Frank Drive and the Murray Valley Highway. A couple of years later Aldi came to town, which is terrific as well. We welcome those respected businesses. Then last week we had Coles open on that same road. Yarrawonga has been waiting for these respected businesses for many years, and we are very grateful to have them all here, but they are all situated on Frank Drive on this intersection with the Murray Valley Highway. Since Bunnings opened back in 2020 the intersection has seen a massive increase in traffic flow. We have seen traffic accidents; we have seen near misses. Since Aldi joined the scene only 12 months ago and then Coles, we have just seen a massive increase in traffic and accidents, and we really need to do something in the short term and the long term to resolve this problem. I am not being critical of Coles, because they just opened last week. We welcome those businesses, but traffic management is needed desperately. James Brogan from Yarrawonga was the first to alert me to the accidents and pending accidents, and since then I have had about 10 or 15 other emails, walk-ins and telephone calls from people concerned about this intersection.
There is a short-term solution in terms of the service road, which we could talk about with Moira shire, and VicRoads could look at a longer term solution, whether that is a roundabout or lights or whatever. But the community is very concerned about this. I will not say it is an accident waiting to happen, because it is just happening all the time. That is why we have got to try and look at some short-term solutions, and then we can put some long-term options on the table. Yarrawonga is the fastest growing town in regional Victoria, and we have got to keep ahead with basic infrastructure. We urgently require an inspection, with Moira shire, VicRoads and me, to look at the short-term and the long-term options and put all the options on the table.