SPECIFICALLY, roadside dumping.
A tale as old as time, roadside dumping has plagued the shire for decades. A quick glance through our archives reveals hundreds of articles written on the issue, with one of the earliest appearing in the Review on June 1, 2004—nearly 21 years ago.
Titled Roadside dumping fears increase, the article warned that Mitchell Shire Council’s proposed hike in waste and resource recovery fees would only worsen an already persistent problem. At the time, the Wandong Heathcote Junction Community Group was routinely clearing 20 to 30 bags of rubbish off the side of the Broadford-Epping Road every two months.
Back then, the cost to dispose of a cubic metre of waste was set to rise from $26 to $28. Today, that fee has soared to $95 for ratepayers and $190 for non-ratepayers.
While the fees are no doubt a factor in many dumping incidents, laziness, a blatant disregard for the environment and community, and a sense of entitlement are also driving forces behind the problem.
A lack of awareness about environmental impact certainly isn’t the issue. Recycling and responsible waste management aren’t rocket science, and its importance has been drilled into each of us from childhood—generations have grown up with slogans such as ‘Do the right thing, use the right bin,’ and ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.’
Unfortunately, once rubbish is dumped, it then needs to be cleared.
This is where the ongoing issue of the unsightly mess worsens, as authorities often fall short in addressing waste clean-up promptly.
An example of this is the grassy mound that sits on the left side of the northbound Hume Freeway Kilmore-Wandong exit. While it appears to be a relatively harmless pile of dirt, now overgrown with weeds and grass, it conceals rocks, bricks, and cement below the surface—a dangerous combination for a road where drivers must decelerate from 110km/h to a complete stop.
It was dumped nearly a year ago, just before March 1, 2024, and reported to the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) shortly after, with assurances that crews would be onsite to remove the rubbish the following week.
Curiously, this is a similar response the Review received from the DTP on November 6, eight months after the initial report, that stated that the pile would be cleared within days. Yet, on November 21, the mound remained untouched, prompting the Review to follow up once again—this time with no reply.
Whether or not crews were ever sent out to the site remains a mystery, but an email received on February 17 stated that the DTP was planning to remove rubbish along Epping-Kilmore Road—not the road in question, but perhaps a simple misunderstanding.
Only time will tell if this mess is finally cleaned up, or if it’s just another load of rubbish.
