Country drivers dig deep for man tackling 'catastrophic' pothole crisis

Victorian drivers donate thousands of dollars to help man mark potholes Sat 8 Aug 2026 at 8:41am , updatedSat 8 Aug 2026 at 8:42am In short: Country drivers are donating money to make potholes more visible as they wait for repairs. More than 252,000 potholes have been patched on Victorian roads in the past financial year. What's next? Road maintenance is shaping up to be an election issue for Victorian voters. Steve Panozzo's fluorescent paintwork is renowned across north-east Victoria. With a shake of his spray can and a check of the traffic, he darts quickly onto a broken country road to leave his mark before another vehicle whizzes by. Mr Panozzo is no artist, though. He instead describes himself as just "a bloke who is utterly fed up" and worried about the state of regional roads, as he sprays thousands of potholes to make them more visible to drivers. "I am incensed, it makes me angry," he says, watching a string of vehicles swerve to avoid a pothole on the outskirts of Wodonga. "It's a constant cycle of recurring potholes where road crews can't deal with new potholes; they have to continue to backtrack and deal with existing potholes that have reopened." Mr Panozzo started marking up road damage three years ago as he became increasingly worried about driver safety, regularly witnessing drivers cross double lines to avoid crater-like holes riddling regional roads. After spending hundreds of dollars on paint, he launched an online fundraising page in March to help fund his paint purchases. He has raised more than $2,700 so far from about 70 donors. He said some people had also left donations under his motorbike helmet while he was on the road, and other drivers had escorted him to hardware stores to pay for his paint. He said drivers facing high living costs should not have to pay to make roads safer. "It's catastrophic,"he said. "This is my concern: that it is inevitable that … we are going to have avoidable catastrophic accidents." Pothole promises More than 252,000 potholes were patched up by the Department of Transport and Planning during the 2025/26 financial year, more than 10 potholes for every kilometre of road managed by the state. Roads have become a hot election topic for many residents who swerve and bump their way daily on degrading surfaces. The Victorian government is investing more than $1 billion in road maintenance this year, while the opposition has pledged $5 billion to repair and rebuild the roads if elected. Bandiana resident Cindy Penny said she was not sure that was even enough, as she watched the same potholes outside her home repaired repeatedly and cars continue to swerve widely to avoid them. "It's just money down the drain because every time it rains, the holes just open up,"she said. Roads will be on her mind as she heads to the polls in November with serious worries a local family will end up dead on her doorstep. "It's a big thing for me because I have little people in my life and I don't want to see any of these families destroyed by fatalities," Ms Penny said. Too little, too late The ramped-up pledges to fix roads have come too late for Albury resident Andrea Lever. The busy real estate agent has spent more than $7,000 and weeks without her car in the past year alone after five tyres were damaged by potholes in separate incidents on Victorian roads. "VicRoads, when I contacted them, simply said, 'Well, you have got your insurance; it's not our problem,'" she said. "There's no compensation whatsoever, which I think is pretty bad when we all have to have our cars roadworthy and we all pay registrations … but then the roads aren't worthy for us." The latest pothole she hit in July was marked by Mr Panozzo, whose work she appreciates, but she was unable to avoid it due to oncoming traffic. She said she worried about her younger staff on the roads. "It was big, and it made such a loud bang," she said. "I kept reflecting on that moment, thinking, is it going to be a fatality next?" [Image text:] OPT HIRE 1300678447