COMMITTEE FOR LORNE PAGE IN SURF COAST TIMES
2 October 2026
State of Inertia Innovation Ignored, Paralysis Embraced
As our regional roads deteriorate day on day, and the public mood at the shameful and dismissive government neglect of Country Victoria in favour of vote-heavy suburban Melbourne moves at warp speed from exasperation to seething anger, I recall the peri-COVID period when one of two short stretches of plasticised asphalt was being laid on the Great Ocean Road [GOR].
In 2019, as I sat in the sun on the balcony of Lorne’s residential aged-care facility at the Lorne Hospital with my much-loved Susie during her last years in care, Fulton Hogan partnered with Regional Roads Victoria to apply a sustainable plasticised asphalt mix to Mountjoy Parade from the Lorne Hotel to Armytage Street [ https://tinyurl.com/4nh8azm7]. In the same year, a second similar stretch was laid in front of the high-netted segment of the GOR on the Lorne side of the Cumberland River.
By adding repurposed, recycled plastics to the standard asphalt mix, Fulton Hogan’s website claimed this eco-friendly road surface diverts the equivalent of 300,000 plastic bottles from landfill to road surfacing, building on an innovation pioneered in 2001/02 by Dr Rajagopalan Vasudevan, a chemistry professor from Madurai, India [ https://tinyurl.com/5be88mtw ].
It had taken just three days for the road gang to lay—or, perhaps better, ‘coat’—the in-town segment. I remember thinking: … at last common sense has prevailed in Victoria and the penny has finally dropped!” I was overjoyed.
It seems my joy was to be premature, for these two sections remain—to my knowledge—the only two sturdy, undamaged, billiard-table smooth sections of road surface along ‘the road’ [ https://tinyurl.com/2f8nnw4x ].
While the rest of this article may prove difficult for some, please stick with it—it speaks to both missed opportunities and a sad indictment of our over-regulated and paralysed State of Victoria.
My moment of elation seven years ago reminded me that, when I was Director of Renal Services at Barwon Health in 2002/03, our team introduced two parallel, complementary innovations that later became internationally recognised for ground-breaking advances in dialysis delivery and healthcare [ https://tinyurl.com/4tn4db7p ].
First, we were the first ex-Canadian site to adopt a program pioneered in Toronto in the late 90s, where we trained our patients to perform their own haemodialysis treatments at home, overnight and while asleep. This program, known as ‘Nocturnal Home Haemodialysis’, was highly effective from a health perspective, but it had an unintended consequence. It transferred all utility costs [water and power] from the institution to the individual. Recognising this, we developed a range of solutions later known as ‘Green Dialysis’. We developed:
- A water recycling system that saved 2,000+ litres/patient/week from being lost to drain, lowering their water bills.
- A funded rooftop solar power option that matched the power demands of their home dialysis equipment, minimising their power bills.
- A waste plastic reuse program that shredded previously discarded medical plastic [nearly 400 kg/patient/year] and incorporated it into a novel water-resistant concrete product. Researched and developed in partnership with Dr Riyadh Al-Ameri of the Dept. of Engineering at Deakin University, Geelong, it set an innovation benchmark for recycling [all] medical plastic waste—waste currently sent to landfill or incineration [ https://tinyurl.com/bbz8s6vb ]..
Our ‘Green Dialysis’ program, and its specialty-wide concept of ‘Green Nephrology ’, espoused environmental and resource conservation concepts for kidney care … NB: Nephrology embraces kidney diseases, just as Cardiology covers heart disease and neurology, brain and nervous system. These concepts have since spread far beyond the kidney community.
So, after establishing a ground-breaking program of medical sustainability—including plasticising concrete—it should come as no surprise that I felt satisfaction as I watched from the hospital balcony as Fulton Hogan trialled recycled plastics and plasticised bitumen on a short section of Lorne’s Mountjoy Parade. At least, now, there were others out there, ‘doing it’. I took it as a sign that the badly damaged roads across the State would soon be repaired with a smooth, pleasure-to-drive-upon surface, and the GOR would regain its worthy place among the world’s most spectacular drives.
No such luck.
Despite all the flashy websites, glossy pics, and fanfare as State-scripted websites [https://tinyurl.com/mr3tuks5], seven years on and with the State sinking every dollar it has … and many more it doesn’t … into a metropolitan money black hole dubbed the ‘BigBuild’, I still await more plasticised road surfaces beyond its few rural ‘trial sites’.
Transport Victoria’s website [https://tinyurl.com/mr4d4xzp] is typical of many government websites that seem redolent with promise but light on outcome. They simulate the urgency of a sloth basking on a sun-drenched branch, with the outdated date stamps on their reports conveying that urgency.
Fulton Hogan’s website [still dated 2019] is full of promise and hope https://tinyurl.com/yc3jpejt, as it bravely trumpets its ‘trial use’ of three tonnes of recycled plastic car components in a sustainable asphalt [PlastPhalt] on a section of the Great Ocean Road near Lorne to “ … prevent a plastic equivalent of roughly 300,000 plastic bottles from entering landfill”. Gee! … how wonderful and heartwarming … but again, check the date stamp … it’s 2019! Finding tangible, concrete, up-to-date-stamped reports of progress—other than those that are clearly pure hype—is like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s all gone very quiet, and one can only wonder why.
Meanwhile, in Country Victoria, the potholes grow, our car wheel rims buckle, our tyres shred, and—sadly—lives are now being lost. As for metro Melbourne, it continues to bask in the hype of its BigBuild—a project no one seems to have wanted.
As bureaucracy bars our every move, as red tape strangles innovation, thought, and cost reduction, billions have been rubber-stamped for the government’s signature grand plan … and our country roads moulder away.
When you drive the two local, rut-free, and plasticised segments of our GOR, spare a thought for what might have been … whether plasticised asphalt on our roads, or water-resistant, medical-plastic-augmented concrete for our footpaths, sea-walls, netball courts and other low weight-bearing surfaces.
With that, it’s back to a nice red.
John Agar
Feature Writer
From the Chairman
Hello
On our first long weekend for a while, tourists and day-trippers thronged to Lorne despite some ordinary weather. With our hospitality operators back to full strength, the main street was busy, parking spots and seats were at a premium, and the crowded beach and foreshore resembled a mid-summer day (although most people were wearing coats and hats). Despite some misgivings about the relevance of an “interstate” Grand Final, I was proved wrong (yet again!) as a crowd of 100,024 turned up at the MCG to watch the contest. The crowd was one seat short of capacity and one of our locals who attended said the empty seat was next to him. Maybe that was because you forgot to take Maxine, Paul! The game more than lived up to expectations and has been rated one of the best Grand Finals of all time. Despite gloomy economic conditions, Victorians and interstate visitors have once again cemented Melbourne’s status as the sporting capital of Australia.
*****
October is Positive Ageing Month, and as part of Victoria Seniors Festival celebrations, the Lorne Thrive 50+ Healthy Ageing Hub will be running a series of events at Lorne Community House. These include Yin Yoga on Sunday October 4, a Dance Exercise Class on Monday October 12, and a “Little Hands Wise Hearts Day”, an intergenerational program bringing together participants from Lorne Kindergarten, GORH aged care residents, and local social support groups. The event is sponsored by the Lorne Op Shop and will take place on Monday October 26.
All are welcome to these events, but registrations are required. For more information collect a free booklet from Lorne Community House or go to the website, https://tinyurl.com/Lorne-Positive-Ageing.
If you are unable to attend any of these events, you are still welcome to visit the Lorne Thrive 50+ Healthy Ageing Hub which operates at Lorne Community House between 9.30am-2.30pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and alternate Fridays. The hub is an initiative of the Western Victoria Primary Health Network, Great Ocean Road Health and the Lorne Community House. These hubs are “community-based programs designed to help residents aged 50 and over to stay active, connected and informed about local health and support services”.
*****
Don’t forget to book your seats (or tables) for the Committee for Lorne Community Lunch on Friday 30 October at Stribling Reserve Pavilion, where the Doug and Mary Stirling Cup will be presented to Doctor Peter Atkinson. Numbers are limited, tickets are selling fast and can be purchased at https://tinyurl.com/peter-atkinson.
And finally, remember that daylight saving time starts on Sunday. Don’t forget to put your clocks forward (if they don’t do it by themselves!), enjoy the longer evenings and commit to a morning dip with the Lorne Mermaids (7.30am every day) or the Men’s Sunrise Swim Club at 7.00am on Wednesdays (more about this group next week). It’s sure to wake you up!
Cheers, John
John Higgins
Chairman
Committee for Lorne
9 October 2026
16 October 2026
23 October
