Who is responsible for a pothole on a road in Victoria?

Either the local council or the Department of Transport and Planning. DTP maintains the freeways and arterial roads — roughly 15% of the network — and councils maintain the rest. Which one applies depends on the individual road, not on how big it looks.

What happens if I report a pothole to the wrong authority?

Usually nothing. The report sits with a body that was never responsible for that road, and under section 102 of the Road Management Act the authority that is responsible has still not been put on notice — which is the fact a later damage claim turns on.

Whose road is it? Council, or the Department of Transport and Planning

Roughly 15% of Victoria's road network — the freeways and the arterials — is maintained by the state, not by the local council. The boundary is invisible from the driver's seat: Ballarat Road through Brimbank is a state road, and the side street beside it is not.

It matters more than it sounds. A pothole reported to a council that does not maintain that road generally goes nowhere, and under section 102 of the Road Management Act 2004 the authority that does maintain it has still not been told — which is the fact a damage claim later turns on.

Drag the pin, or tap the map, to move it.

Report a pothole here

How the split works

Department of Transport and Planning

Freeways and declared arterial roads across the state — about 15% of the network, and most of the roads with a route number. Reports go through the VicRoads road-issue form, or 13 11 70 for anything dangerous right now.

Your council

79 councils maintain everything else: local streets, most rural roads, car parks and footpaths. Each publishes its own Road Management Plan setting out how quickly it undertakes to respond.

The exceptions worth knowing

Toll roads. CityLink (Transurban) and EastLink (ConnectEast) are maintained by their operators, not by DTP and not by a council.
Alpine resorts. Roads at Falls Creek, Mount Buller and the other resorts sit with Alpine Resorts Victoria. They are not council areas, whatever the map suggests.
Private roads. Some roads that look public are not gazetted at all, and no authority is obliged to repair them.
Boundaries. A locality can sit across two councils, and which one applies depends on which side of the street the hole is on.

You do not have to work this out to report one

Filing a report here takes about 30 seconds and needs no account. The authority is resolved from where you drop the pin, the record is public and dated, and you are handed straight through to that authority's own channel afterwards.

Report a pothole It already damaged my car

Road data © State of Victoria (Vicmap Transport and DTP Managed Roads), CC BY 4.0. This page describes how responsibility is allocated; it is general information, not legal advice.