CLARKEFIELD’S future is hanging by a thread, but no one has heard from the remaining residents living in the heart of the tiny town,
who claim they can’t move on with their lives.
Steve Rodwell, Kieran Burns and Tim Healy are the final residents remaining on Clarkefield’s Station Street, which was once home to one of the most popular pubs in the region.
Today, the town’s emptiness gives the place an eerie and lonely feeling, screaming for development or change.
Tim Healy remains in a difficult situation, with the developer proposing 2500 dwellings owning the houses on either side of his property.
It leaves him stuck between two empty buildings that have been broken into, surrounded by temporary fencing and questioning his future in Clarkefield and whether his property is worth investing time or energy in.
“How can we put money into our properties when the developer just wants the land value?” Mr Healy asked.
APD is the prospective developer in Clarkefield, proposing 2500 new dwellings.
It owns extensive land around the small town, including the majority of the houses and buildings on Station Street.
Kieran Burns has lived in Clarkefield since childhood, living with his family before moving into his own house when he was 17.
Mr Burns said he would be happy to see development because he feels the town has been deserted and ignored by council and government for decades.
“Yes, I like the development,” he said.
“We should have nice tennis courts, nice facilities and nice walking tracks so we can go to Riddells Creek or Sunbury.
“But they’re quite happy to put our rates up through the roof and we don’t see anything for that.”
The three residents agreed they were happy to see growth in the town, although they would prefer it to be less drastic. They remained frustrated about simple maintenance tasks they felt they should not have to undertake, such as mowing the grass alongside the 500-metre stretch of road.
“We can’t move on with our lives. We are stuck in the mud.” Mr Burns said.
According to Macedon Ranges Shire Council (MRSC), property owners are responsible for mowing and maintaining the nature strips along the entire length of Station Street.
Yet the developer owns the majority of the land, either leasing it to farmers or leaving the grass to grow.
Steve, Tim and Kieran told the Review they had mowed it countless times and had had enough.
Steve Rodwell has seen the community shrink to almost nothing, saying there is no community anymore.
Mr Rodwell was most angered by the lack of communication with the three residents from political parties talking about Clarkefield’s future, taking videos and “using it for the election”.
“There is no such thing as a Clarkefield community anymore. There is five residents from here (Station Street) to the start of Rolling Meadows.”
He agreed that the proposed development was too big for the current facilities but would still love to see some change and a sense of community brought back.
In 2021, APD presented the proposal to residents for community consultation. According to Steve, Tim and Kieran, it was well received, but they felt it went nowhere afterwards and the town was forgotten again.
“The original proposal, everyone basically liked. We stood in there (Clarkefield Hotel) when APD showed the initial proposal and all of the community were for it,” Mr Rodwell said.
“Then nothing happened for such a long time and we’ve been forgotten about.
“We’re not a hamlet township like they keep saying.”
In 2018, the town received a boost with the revamp of the train station’s car park, which has become more popular as nearby towns such as Romsey have grown, with residents using Clarkefield’s train station for daily travel.
But the upgrades came with questions that remain unanswered to this day.
Station Street also received an upgrade just one year later, thanks to a commitment from Mary-Anne Thomas and her government, alongside MRSC.
The road was widened to allow cars to travel safely in both directions in anticipation of future population growth.
But the road was left incomplete past the hotel, leaving users and residents to deal with potholes and dust.
The Review investigated why the Station Street upgrade did not extend an extra 30 metres to connect with the car park built in 2018.
After contacting Mary-Anne Thomas’s office, which referred us to council, we received confirmation that the land was owned by VicTrack.
VicTrack then referred us to the Department of Transport and Planning, which referred us back to council. We eventually established that the section past the pub was classified as a ‘car park’.
This was a strange explanation for a dirt road that could have been sealed while the rest of the road was being upgraded.
This meant the almost $500,000 road project in 2019 did not provide a fully sealed connection to the car park built in 2018, leaving Clarkefield Station users to travel through potholes and dirt. Yet Ms Thomas said in 2019: “This road upgrade will deliver a better connection to Clarkefield Railway Station.”
The residents believed it summed up the town itself: left unfixed and unchanged for years.
The Review asked the three residents whether they were happy living in Clarkefield. All three said no.
Fear is also growing among the residents, who say Clarkefield is becoming a hot spot for crime and break-ins, which they attribute to a lack of security and the small population.
All three residents recalled recent break-ins, waking to find more broken windows and evidence of burnouts at the end of the street.
They are calling for a decision to be made and some development to proceed, saying they remain “unhappy” and “stuck in limbo”.
The future of their properties is a major concern. All three questioned whether it was worth continuing to live in Clarkefield or investing in renovations or upgrades when the developer could potentially buy them out.
The wait for a decision is taking a toll on the residents, who are fed up and ready to move on with their lives.
“We want to see someone tell the developer that it’s not happening or let them get on with it and stop holding everything up,” Mr Burns said.