Where the hotspot data comes from

The map shows two different things, and the difference matters more than it looks.

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.

The sources

1. 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 ↗

2. 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 ↗

3. Latrobe Valley Express 21 July 2026

   Photographed as part of the same report on Latrobe Valley road condition.

   2 entries · latrobevalleyexpress.com.au ↗

4. 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 ↗

5. 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 ↗

6. The North Central Review 14 July 2026

   Mitchell Shire roads reported as deteriorating through winter 2026.

   1 entry · ncreview.com.au ↗

7. 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 ↗

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