Zoe Moffatt
In the darkness of midnight a stranger mowed a roundabout in Sunbury.
Roundabouts in the town have been a point of frustration for locals, with resident Mick Dyer chatting to the Star Weekly in mid-January about the overgrown vegetation on a Macedon and Evans streets.
Mr Dyer said last month that the roundabout was ‘dangerous’ and a ‘disgrace’ and the overgrown vegetation inhibited a driver’s vision.
“If you’re sitting in a car you cannot see a car on the roundabout at all,” he said at the time. “There has been an accident there before and there probably has been again.”
Another local, decided to take things into their own hands.
In video shown on Channel Seven and seen by Star Weekly on January 29, it shows the hooded stranger mowing the roundabout.
Mr Dyer said following the grass being trimmed, that vegetation should be removed completely on main road roundabouts, as it’s too dangerous.
“It’s an absolute disgrace the money we pay to VicRoads for registration,” he said.
“Riddlell Road and Vineyard Road are a metre high and very dry. There will be a fire very soon, VicRoads is a disgrace.”
A post in a Sunbury Community Facebook page showed the good samaritan mowing the lawn, with users sharing their frustration at the lack of maintenance.
Sunbury MP Josh Bull also took to Facebook to address the concern, saying he wrote to the roads and road safety minister and asked for a review of the schedule, for a more frequent service.
“In addition to this I have spoken to our Hume council mayor and asked that council also review their cutting and maintenance schedule,” he said.
A Hume council spokesperson said council is concerned with the level of service and has raised this with the Department of Transport and Planning.
A Department of Transport and Planning spokesperson said crews mow tens of thousands of kilometres of grass across the state each year.
“We prioritised vegetation maintenance along Sunbury Road [which turns into Macedon Street] to address community concerns at roundabouts- with work being completed in November 2023,” they said.
