Where the hotspot data comes from
The map shows two different things, and the difference matters more than it looks.
Reports
A photograph somebody took, with coordinates, a date and a permanent record. This is evidence: it can show a road authority was on notice before someone's wheel was wrecked. Only people standing on the road can create it.
Documented hotspots
Roads that a named public source has said are in poor condition — RACV's assessments, regional newspapers, industry bodies. Useful for knowing where to look. Not evidence: no photo we may publish, no verified coordinates, and no proof anyone told the authority.
We keep them in separate tables and draw them differently on purpose. Dressing a newspaper's sentence up as a dated, photographed report would make the register look fuller and be worth less — and the register's whole value is that every entry in it can be stood behind.
54
documented hotspots
3,832 km
of road covered
10
published sources
The sources
- RACV My Country Road 2026 3 June 2026
Listed in 2024 and again in 2026; the 2024 Colac-Stonyford section was extended to Camperdown.
38 entries · 3,121 km of road · racv.com.au ↗
- RACV My Country Road 2024 results 1 October 2024
Most-nominated road in the 2024 survey.
5 entries · 370 km of road · racv.com.au ↗
- The Courier, Ballarat 27 August 2026
A driver reported a tyre blowout from a pothole at Warrenheip.
3 entries · 64 km of road · thecourier.com.au ↗
- Latrobe Valley Express 21 July 2026
Photographed as part of the same report on Latrobe Valley road condition.
2 entries · latrobevalleyexpress.com.au ↗
- The North Central Review 14 July 2026
Mitchell Shire roads reported as deteriorating through winter 2026.
1 entry · ncreview.com.au ↗
- Melina Bath MP, via VFF blitz coverage 8 July 2026
Described as deteriorating again after repairs.
1 entry · 139 km of road · vff.org.au ↗
- The Age 9 July 2026
Named among highways where drivers reported tyre and rim damage after rain.
1 entry · 138 km of road · theage.com.au ↗
- ABC News 10 August 2026
About 30 vehicles damaged in one morning at Bunyip. DTP said emergency repairs were finished the same afternoon.
1 entry · abc.net.au ↗
- The Standard, Warrnambool 28 August 2026
Potholes a driving instructor says caused almost $7,000 in vehicle repairs.
1 entry · standard.net.au ↗
- ABC News 13 September 2026
Police said emergency services were called after reports that a motorcycle had struck a pothole and lost control. The circumstances are under investigation.
1 entry · abc.net.au ↗
How the lines on the map were drawn
A source says "Princes Highway, Portland to Port Fairy" — a sentence, not a shape. Rather than drawing a line by hand, each corridor is assembled from the same government data the site uses to decide who owns a road: Vicmap locality boundaries for the two towns, and the DTP Managed Roads centrelines for the highway itself. Where a road isn't in that set, the entry falls back to a straight line between the towns and the map says so rather than implying precision it doesn't have.
Every hotspot
Know one of these roads?
A dashed line says a newspaper wrote about this road. A photograph with a date says the hole is there and the authority has been told. Only the second one is any use to the next driver — and it takes about thirty seconds.
Report a pothole