Melbourne's east is about to become a testing ground for Labor's election promise to double the number of potholes fixed across Victoria this year, despite the majority of roads in the region being managed by local councils.
What happened? On Sunday August 30, Premier Ben Carroll announced an extra $352 million allocation towards the 2026/27 road maintenance budget – bringing the total figure to about $1.39 million – to lift the state's pothole repair target from 250,000 to 500,000 this year.
According to a statement, crews will target key arterials across the state, including the Princes Highway and regional roads.
The additional funding would come from delaying three level crossing removals in Melbourne’s south-east by 12 months.
The plans also involve utilising the state’s prison inmates via a collaboration with Corrections Victoria where minimum-security prisoners would perform “basic” road maintenance as part of an outdoor manual labour program.
Opposition response: In July, the opposition announced its plan to invest $5 billion in repairing the state’s roads over a four-year period if it wins the upcoming November election, including a target to fix one million potholes.
Early fixes: Whitehorse council has identified Burwood Highway, Station Street, Elgar Road, Springvale Road and Canterbury Road as the five key arterial roads requiring state government investment.
Whitehorse mayor Kirsten Langford said the condition of some state roads across Whitehorse was “simply not good enough” and more proactive maintenance from the state government was needed.
🗣️ “Our community continues to raise concerns about potholes, failed road surfaces and roads that are deteriorating before action is taken,” she told the Eastern Melburnian.
Council vs state: The majority of roads across Melbourne’s east are managed by the local councils. For example, Boroondara council manages 86 percent of its roads, Whitehorse 84 percent, 80 percent in Monash and about 74.6 percent in the Yarra Ranges region.
In 2025-26, Boroondara council received 383 pothole and road defect reports, relating to both council-managed and state-managed roads – close to double the 192 reports received the year prior.
Yarra Ranges council director of built environment and infrastructure Anita Curnow said state roads within the area included the Maroondah, Melba and Warburton highways and Mount Dandenong Tourist Road.
Maroondah mayor Linda Hancock said the council is continuing to “advocate for improved maintenance and timely repairs” of arterial roads.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Knox council said the council welcomes the announcement of additional funding to repair and maintain roads managed by the state government.
Thumbnail Image Credit: Santeri Viinamäki