By Ethan Benedicto
Thorns peeking over the fence and a lack of access through their backyard door, Beaconsfield couple Rachel and Darren are battling overgrown weeds on a daily basis, despite government promises to cut it.
With theirs and a number of other homes in their street backed onto the 10-metre walls that separate them and the Princes Freeway, there’s a five-metre gap of nothing but shrubbery.
Home to snakes, possums, bugs, and everything in between, the creeping plant is proving to be more than just a hindrance for the couple, especially since it’s been that way for more than five years.
“It’s not just annoying, it’s a fire hazard, there’s been people here that have had snakes in their backyard,” Rachel said.
“The shurb’s blackberries come over the fence, and then we’ve had possums come this side too and eat at them, and then the dogs would chase them.
“It’s a nuisance, a nuisance that there are people out there that can’t do their job.”
The couple, who have lived in their Beaconsfield home for over 20 years, said that it was a regular occurrence that the nature strip would be cut.
However, according to them, since the construction of the Princes Freeway, the scheduled maintenance has been in disarray.
“Around three years ago, we had a new fence put up and a gate put in so we could get out there ourselves and mow a little bit,” the couple said.
“But it would just be the first couple of metres because it’s actually on a really big slope.
“The first 18 years or so, they cut the grass every summer, but then just like that, they stopped.”
In an email exchange between Rachel and Berwick and current state Liberal leader Brad Battin MP, it was stated from Minister Melissa Horne that the “second cut on Princes Freeway was completed in February 2025”.
This included the road reserve at the rear of the properties, with the next mowing scheduled for May 2025.
However, since their correspondence with parties such as the Department of Transport and Planning, VicRoads, LaTrobe MP Jason Wood, and Battin in mid-2024, the grass has not been cut.
“There’s definitely been correspondence between us and them, but it’s (the shrub) is still there,” Rachel said.
“In the past, since last January, I rang VicRoads more times than I can remember, and they kept telling me that they’ll escalate the issue.
“So then I contacted Jason Wood’s office, and they replied saying ‘it’ll be done urgently’, but after a couple of months, I sent them another email saying ‘what’s urgent because it still hasn’t been done’.”
Darren, while looking through the opened gate that’s since been replaced seemingly by a ‘clone’ made of vines and spikes, said that he’s tried to cut it himself.
Despite different methods, from using the whipper-snipper to herbicides, nothing has been effective enough to keep the weed at bay.
“Look, they used to keep it cut, and they haven’t done that in ages now; at that point, it used to fully drape over our fence,” Darren said.
“I had to cut that back because the possums were sitting on this side and eating the berries.”
The couple believe that if it had been their property, it wouldn’t have taken the same amount of time for them to have “received numerous fines for not cutting it”.
The weed’s roots have started to make their way under the fence’s border, as well as on top, marking only a short while away before more work from the couple is needed to trim it back down.
As it stands, the couple are looking for some respite after years of tackling a job that is not theirs to take.
This story is developing, and more information will be added once available.
