Series
Victoria’s pothole crisis
How should Victoria tackle its crumbling road network? While Labor wants to deploy prisoners for basic roadside maintenance, the Coalition has pledged billions for regional upgrades.
11 stories
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The small holes making big news: An unscientific reckoning on Victoria’s roads
It was an assignment for the ages – count all the potholes on the Hume Freeway in Victoria and NSW. It soon became clear which side was better maintained.
- August 30, 2026
- Benjamin Preiss
‘Blows the pavement up’: How freezing water and car tyres create a pothole in just days
Experts and politicians have different ideas about how to fix Victoria’s pothole plague. They all aim to solve the same problem.
- Angelica Snowden
‘Never seen a pothole like it’: Family’s scare on Hume Freeway
Rachel Welsh had her car towed after being unable to avoid a huge pothole that she estimates was at least a metre wide.
- Alexander Darling
Putting prisoners to work: The radical plan to fix Victoria’s pothole crisis
Labor has revealed its plans to improve the state’s roads including the use of minimum-security prisoners to free up road workers to fix more potholes, but the opposition isn’t convinced.
- Roy Ward
Bitumen blitz: Coalition pledges billions to rural road upgrades
The Liberal and National parties have vowed to fix one million of the state’s worst potholes and overhaul the road maintenance program if elected in November.
- Annika Smethurst
- Opinion
Bent axles and broken trust: How potholes are firing a rebellion against Jacinta Allan
Potholes are an emblem of regional anger now simmering at a level we haven’t seen in Victoria since the end of the Kennett government.
- Chip Le Grand
- Editorial
Potholes aren’t just a road hazard – they’re a test of basic governance
Tackling the state of Victoria’s roads will be a measure of a party’s commitment to voters.
- The Age’s View
- Updated
Drivers stranded on Princes Highway as potholes wreak carnage in wild weather across Victoria
A man has died and a woman is in hospital after a tree crushed their car in Victoria’s High Country after a deluge of rain and wild weather hit the state.
- James Costa and Alexander Darling
‘Nothing short of a disgrace’: Potholes abound as road maintenance falls by the wayside
The City of Whittlesea has identified more than a thousand defects on local state-owned roads – including potholes, dumped rubbish and damaged guard rails.
- Gemma Grant
Regional pothole patching to be cut amid pledge to rein in Big Build
The government has committed more than $1 billion for road maintenance, but the amount of spot patching on regional roads has been significantly scaled back.
- Kieran Rooney and Patrick Hatch
- Exclusive
Labor tips $1.1 billion into pothole-ridden freeway
Political support federal and state Labor has sunk in Victoria over the past 18 months, adding urgency to the case for new federal funding for Victorian roads.
- Paul Sakkal
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