By Oscar Parry
Hume council will investigate the option of resuming council-led maintenance of median strip and roundabout vegetation on state-managed arterial roads.
During the council’s February 10 meeting, councillor Naim Kurt called for council officers to investigate the state-led maintenance schedule of arterial roads in Hume as compared to the council’s schedule for its own roads and to analyse the costing for council to take on the responsibility of managing state road median strips.
Cr Kurt said prior to 2019, council maintained vegetation on median strips and roundabouts on arterial roads under a minor maintenance agreement with VicRoads, which he said delivered a “higher standard of maintenance than is currently provided” by the Department of Transport and Planning’s (DTP) private contractor.
“Poor state of roadside maintenance on median strips and roundabouts … has been a consistent source of frustration and complaints from the Hume community,” Cr Kurt said.
He said the agreement was ended in October 2022 by the DTP.
“It’s now gone to … three cuts per year to a height of 250 millimetres compared to Hume’s standard monthly cutting schedule of once every four weeks,” he said.
“Particularly in the lead up to late last year … I thought … there might be a black panther that might jump out from some of the grass that was overgrown in different parts of our municipality.”
Cr Kurt said if council was to resume the agreement, it would cost an estimated $1.15 million annually.
On the topic of maintaining median strip vegetation, ecologist and native bee researcher Clancy Lester said that low-lying prostrate plants could be a lower-maintenance alternative to grass and has noticed that the public is increasingly “shifting away from manicured lawns and towards … creating habitat for insects and pollinators.”
Indigenous native flowering species that he said could be used for this purpose include Cut-leaf Daisies, Common Everlasting, Running Postman, Native Violet, and Blue Bells.
The Department of Transport and Planning was contacted for comment.
