General News
10 October, 2025
Maryborough’s VicRoads services to continue with council negotiations ongoing
All VicRoads services will continue in Maryborough beyond October 31, as Central Goldfields Shire Council (CGSC) continue negotiations with VicRoads and the State Government over sustainable funding.
CGSC CEO Peter Harriott has declared the full suite of VicRoads services will be staying in Maryborough from November 1, 2025.
“It will continue, the full list of services will continue. If we have negotiated something by then, good. If we haven’t, we will continue somehow,” he said.
VicRoads contacted the shire in April this year, advising funding would change to a transaction based model for agencies, bringing Maryborough in line with the rest of the state.
However, the shire deemed the move “financially unfavourable”, so an interim model was put in place.
“Because we were in full cost recovery, we would invoice VicRoads, they would pay us back for all of our costs. From July 1, we were to go to a transaction model, so they pay a fee per transaction, and that is financially unfavourable,” Mr Harriott said.
“We negotiated an interim financial arrangement and that goes between July 1 to October 31. This is the arrangement the shire currently has in place.”
Maryborough VicRoads operates under a unique model delivering all services like a VicRoads customer service centre, while classified as an agency.
Hence, they can only receive agency funding.
At the public meeting on September 29, Mr Harriott announced Maryborough VicRoads would not close, yet uncertainty still lingered on what would be left of the agency.
“After October, a decision has got to be made. That would be for council to fund it under the agency arrangement which is repayment per transaction. Obviously that’s not friendly to council because we would be subsidising it,” he said at the public meeting.
However, Mr Harriott has since stated all services will remain under this agency funding, a move CGSC was not in favour of.
The shire has continuously stated covering the cost of VicRoads is unfair for the small rural council, and are not willing to subsidise the cost through ratepayers.
“The arrangement was going to be financially unfavourable to council. It’s still not financially favourable and it’s not the break even position, but that is what we are trying to negotiate at the moment. At least a break even position,” Mr Harriott said.
As negotiations with VicRoads and the State Government continue, Mr Harriott said there is no timeline on how long this could take.
“I’m not placing any timeline on this. We are trying to resolve this as soon as possible, VicRoads want to resolve this as soon as possible,” he said.
“We continue to work with VicRoads. It is on the basis of having a financially break even position, so that council’s costs are covered, and that’s what we are working towards.”
Local driving instructor David Hendrickson said he is pleased this decision had been made, but believes a sustainable outcome is still needed.
“It’s a start. At least they are keeping it open. We are not going to lay down and accept it if it doesn’t. It gives us time to sort out the government. It’s a good solution, really,” he said.
While it is unknown how long these negotiations will continue, Mr Hendrickson said it is vital all VicRoads services stay in Maryborough.
As a result, he has arranged hundreds of vehicles to attend an ‘anything with wheels’ parade this weekend, to include motorcycles, emergency service vehicles, tractors and historic vehicles and trucks that he said will draw attention to the people, businesses and industries that rely on in-person services.
“In the 16 days a month Maryborough VicRoads is open, 2000 transactions are done, that is more than Ararat, Kyneton and Portland. Ararat and Kyneton don’t even register heavy vehicles, but they have full-time offices. In Maryborough we have the facilties to register heavy vehicles,” he said.
While negotiations continue, a parliamentary petition has circulated as far as Ararat, calling on the State Government to reverse the funding model.
Circulating in both paper and electronic form, the paper petition must have a minimum of 2000 signatures for both to be handed to the legislative council.
The electronic version currently has just under 1000 signatures.
Sponsored by Member for Western Victoria Bev McArthur, the petition will be live until November 30, 2025.