MITCHELL Shire Council is demanding answers for better traffic management around Beveridge, in particular, around the Beveridge Primary School Arrowsmith Campus, with the unanimous passing of a notice of motion urging Council officers to write a letter signed by the Mayor on behalf of all councillors to the State Government and opposition.
The notice of motion, pushed by Councillor Bob Humm, was seen as a matter of ‘low-hanging fruit’ but one which needed to get done as soon as possible.
“To me, it is a high-priority area,” he said.
“I think there is a high risk for these children being dropped off at this school, as the way it’s set up at the moment.
“I found that Council had actually done a report from back in 2025 that actually specifically issues this problem, and there’s been design works done by our staff, that puts us out about a million dollars to improve, and there’s fantastic design works that have been done that would improve the safety around this area.”
Cr Humm said the issue had created tension between families.
“It is high time it is done. We talk about family violence in various different situations around our Shire. If you have people getting in specific arguments over trying to park a car, to get their children into school, the kids don’t want to go to school because mum and dad get into an argument every time they go there,” he said.
“This needs to be looked at and needs to be done as fast as possible. Whether which government gets in in the next two to three months, this area needs to be covered by all governments and all sectors of the government, including the state school education department.
“I can see this problem occurring in Kilmore around Assumption College. If we get in front of it down in Beveridge, we won’t have to worry about it happening in Kilmore sometime in the future.
“This definitely needs some sort of direct input by everybody for some funding. It’s not a lot of money, it is low-hanging fruit and easy to get it done, it’s just a matter of making the decision to get it done.”
Cr Nathan Clark said there was a genuine need for people to stay calm while Council tried to push for better conditions at drop-off points.
“We’ve got huge population growth on the western side of the Hume, and for people who aren’t familiar, there are two campuses that service Beveridge,” he said.
“You might be in the predicament where you have to drop one child off at one campus and then travel across Lithgow Street to drop off another child or children at the second.
“I can understand how, at the end of that journey, every morning can be quite challenging for families.
“The only thing that I can really encourage people to do in the interim, until something better is managed, is to be kind to each other, be patient and just think that in a moment of rushed frustration, you might be causing a terrible accident around a primary school, which would be a sub-optimal outcome.”
Cr Claudia James was strong on the matter, saying Beveridge was in the position it was due to it being a ‘car society’ with ‘poor forward planning’.
“The State Government’s put huge pressure on the population here. This was once a cute little school, with very few students, and parents could easily just drop off their children, pick them up without any change at the entrance of the school,” she said.
“It now has 300 students. This is a car society – there’s no public transport, the suburb is very spread out, as Cr Clark said, there’s campuses on both sides of the Hume Freeway, so there are heaps of cars.
“I was down there on Thursday afternoon – there are cars everywhere.”
Cr Bob Cornish said there needed to be changes, including bringing together the whole school as one singular campus.
“Council staff are trying to address it, but it’s not going to go away in the short term. The sooner they can get the other school built on the east side that caters to children from grade prep to grade six, the sooner the community will be better off,” he said.
“The angst and tension, because parents are trying to get their little ones to school, is what is causing this particular problem, and it shouldn’t be on the backs of the teachers to take the responsibility, herd these kids into the schools.
“Whatever traffic management systems can be introduced to lessen the tension between the parents moving forward, the safety of the children is the most important thing.
“Footpaths under the Hume Freeway from the west going to the east are not conducive to the safety in the long term.”
After Council passed the motion unanimously, Mayor Cr John Dougall expressed his thanks to Council officers for being on top of the issue.
“I’m pleased to see Council officers recognised this issue and had already worked up plans for rectifying it,” he said.
“What we’ve done here is triggered the need for the State Government to address this safety matter.”
