September 7th, 2026Potholes puncturing pockets in regional Vic

In a tourism region like the Central Highlands you would think the busiest business would be a hotel or a cafe but it’s probably Jamie Adams from Daylesford Tyre and Windscreen Service.
Potholes are the talk of the region and Jamie is happy to chat about them too.
“They’re just everywhere, they keep opening up,” Jamie said. “Since August 10 we’ve had 48 pothole strikes – I have been keeping a count.
“Ballan-Daylesford Road’s been a hotspot, we had 28 in one week alone. It’s about 70 per cent tyre, 30 per cent wheels. The wheels have got to be repaired or replaced.”
Jamie said one of the worst jobs was a Tesla which was towed in with two tyres and two rims gone, at a cost of about $1800.
“The worst one was an AMG Mercedes SUV last week. Tyres and rims, about $5300. The tyres alone are $950 each.”
In terms of pothole size Jamie says the largest was one out near the Daylesford Cemetery. It takes up the whole lane, it’s probably 15 metres long – they’re not potholes, they’re mini mineshafts.”
Trying to make a claim against VicRoads? Good luck. Jamie said VicRoads bumped up the claim threshold from $800 to $1681 a few years back.
“But you’ve got to prove it and they won’t look at a claim under that. You can burn an hour on hold to the pothole hotline just to be told that.”
That threshold represents the dollar figure you have to reach before you can claim anything above it. So the driver pays the first $1681, frontloads the rest of the bill themselves and then argues it out with VicRoads.
Of 1809 compensation claims lodged with the Department of Transport and Planning over the past two financial years, just 23 were paid out, a success rate of roughly two per cent.
And while Jamie may be keeping busy, it’s not a great business for his usually friendly demeanour.
“The customers are always pissed off when they come in,” Jamie said. “Half the cars these days don’t even carry a spare, so if someone needs to get back to Melbourne, they’re stuck with getting towed.”
Mechanics in other areas across regional Victoria have also reported a surge in pothole-related work, with more wheel alignments, shock-absorber replacements, worn ball joints and control-arm repairs coming through the workshop door than in previous years, as the state’s ageing road network struggles to keep pace with a wet winter and rising traffic volumes.
Hepburn Shire Council has tipped $2.73 million into road reconstruction, resealing and gravel re-sheeting in recent years, on top of roughly $3 million more in general repair works, including a $500,000 patching contract awarded off the back of a dedicated pavement defect audit.
Down the road, the City of Ballarat committed $3.4 million to repairing its municipal road network after a wet winter and has since launched what it is calling its largest road maintenance blitz yet, targeting more than 340,000 square metres of damaged road across the municipality.
The state government has also moved to double its pothole repair target, pledging to fix 500,000 potholes by the end of January next year, up from an earlier commitment of 250,000, at a cost of $352 million on top of the $1.04 billion already budgeted for road maintenance this financial year.
Victorian Roads Minister Paul Hamer has acknowledged road conditions are “not good enough” and confirmed a review is underway into the compensation scheme, though he has stopped short of promising changes to the damage threshold that determines whether a claim is even considered.

Words: Kyle Barnes | Images: Kyle Barnes