If you’ve visited Lorne’s famous Qdos art gallery of late you will know only too well just how dangerous this is…on foot or in your car. It’s not kilometres out of town…actually 500 metres from the town boundary! Locals are fed up with the state of disrepair and the heightened risk to pedestrians, vehicular safety and tourism.
Two locals have come to the rescue…Qdos Art Gallery owner Graeme Wilkie and Allenvale Rd resident Peter Simson are spearheading a push to have the section of road sealed from the start of the gravel before Qdos for about 500 metres to put an end to the current state of disrepair….and they are offering to pay for 50% of the cost and are asking Council to match their investment in community safety. And the project has the full support of the peak local community body…The Committee for Lorne.
Allenvale Rd is one of a handful of roads where families and walkers may stroll along en route to Qdos, Allenvale Camp area, Phantom Falls walk or take the bush trails to Teddys lookout. Locals have witnessed families pulling children from the side of the road in haste as passing cars, 4WDs and trucks negotiate the road surfaces at speed but often with difficulty given the narrowness of the road and extent of deep corrugations causing cars to slide. It’s a matter time before a pedestrian will be seriously injured.
Google Maps directs traffic to Phantom Falls via this route. Qdos is now a tourism icon, with large numbers of cars travelling on this inadequate piece of “track” on a daily basis. The Allenvale Mill Campground is on the camping map and indeed Parks Vic continues to open up tracks (eg Sharps Rd) with fresh road surfacing which is attracting 4WD enthusiasts amongst others. According to Peter Simson there have been four accidents along this stretch of Allenvale Rd in the last two years…which were all reported to Council.
Allenvale Rd is now regularly used by VicRoads, Parks Vic and Barwon Water as a major access road to their respective assets for construction or maintenance purposes. Trucks contribute significantly to road degradation and leave plumes of dust over Qdos buildings and gardens and families walking the road for recreational purposes.
Here’s how you can help
- Lodge a Request with Surf Coast Shire requesting that the road surface be upgraded. Use this link to access the “Lodge a Request” section of the Shire’s website.
- Email Surf Coast Shire at info@surfcoast.vic.gov.au and register your support to have the road upgraded. Suggested content for your email:
Subject: Allenvale Rd Disrepair
To: Councillors and CEO
“I fully support the sealing of Allenvale Road for about 500 metres from the start of the gravel section for the following reasons:
- It’s dangerous for both pedestrians and vehicles
- It’s negatively impacting local tourism and creates an image of public neglect
- Council has not maintained the road to an adequate level causing serious road surface degradation, watercourses over road, deep corrugations causing cars to slip, topsoil slippage from adjacent fire prevention works, dust clouds over walkers and Qdos art gallery.
- We request that Council match 1:1 the investment in community safety proposed by Graeme Wilkie and Peter Simson.
We believe that with sufficient community support Surf Coast Shire will act to redress this section of Allenvale Road which poses such unacceptable levels of risk to safety and has such a negative environmental impact
Graeme Wilkie & Peter Simson
