"Severed in half": Myrtlebank families fight road plan that would split properties after a decade of silence

Ten years after VicRoads first knocked on their door with a map of options for a road development in Myrtlebank, residents are still looking for answers and pleading to the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) to reconsider its preferred choice.

The development is part of the long-awaited Sale bypass and is set to realign Myrtlebank- Fulham Road. Residents say the new highway route will go straight through their properties – and in some cases be 20 metres from bedroom windows.

What happened: Three Myrtlebank families whose properties sit on a proposed route for the Sale Alternate Truck Route addressed Wellington Shire Council this week, asking for backing in their push for an alternative road development that would avoid carving up their land.

What is the Sale alternate truck route? The Sale bypass is a new road network that will allow heavy vehicles to avoid driving through the Sale CBD.

• As part of that development, Transport Victoria proposed installing a dual-lane roundabout at the intersection at Myrtlebank-Fulham Road with Maffra-Sale Road, as well as a road realignment that will pass through several properties in Myrtlebank.

• Myrtlebank resident David Turnbull told the Monitor residents were approached a decade ago by VicRoads with four options for the road realignment, then after one community consultation event VicRoads decided to go with their current preferred option.

Turnbull said residents didn’t hear anything else about the development for eight years, until the state government committed $10.9 million in May 2024.

• Transport Victoria’s website says the next stage of the project is pre-construction works.

What do the families think?

Myrtlebank residents Rebecca and Chris Gratton, Daniel Mizzi and Turnbull told councillors their properties will be impacted by the road realignment as it cuts directly through their land.

• Turnbull said he bought his Myrtlebank property almost two decades ago for peace and quiet and has planted 150 to 200 trees at the back of his block to reduce the noise from the back road.

• Now, under the preferred Sale alternate truck route alignment, the highway is set to run 30 to 40 metres from his back fence.

🗣️ “The road will take three or four acres off my property, so it cuts a strip right through it,” Turnbull said.

Mizzi told the council he has spent 20 years developing the property as a "forever home" and it would be "severed in half" by VicRoad’s preferred route.

Turnbull said Mizzi’s property will be the worst affected, with the realignment passing 20 metres from his daughter's bedroom window.

"We're not opposed to something happening out there. I think we'd all agree that we need to do some upgrades,” Mizzi said. “But this has been going on for 10 years, so it’s always in the back of your mind.”

All landowners say a different alignment through a nearby paddock would have far less impact on residences and avoid removing tree cover. 

• 🗣️ Rebecca Grattan told the Monitor: “We’re not trying to push this into anyone else's driveway or anyone else’s backyard, there’s a neighbouring paddock that is a much better option.”

Looking for answers

The Gratton’s said state Nationals MP Danny O'Brien and federal Nationals MP Darren Chester have both visited their property and written separately to the Victorian Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Ros Spence, with no reply yet.

The council confirmed it has already written to the DTP and will send a follow-up letter responding to the landowners' concerns.

The Monitor has contacted the DTP for comment on the development.