Community celebrate new supervised school crossing on Warrnambool highway

The scene of many accidents and near misses, the busy Ardlie and Hider streets intersection has also been slowed to 40kmh.

Mayor Ben Blain said the council chipped in $100,000 for the crossing and $70,000 for new footpaths for the joint project with the Department of Roads and Transport.

"Safety's number one here," Cr Blain said.

He said for kids to be able to get safely from one side of the highway to the other was really important and this would change the way kids get to school.

Cr Blain thanked resident Donna Monaghan for the work she did campaigning for the school crossing.

"Without Donna's advocacy and pushing, this would never have happened," Cr Blain said.

''It seems like something that should have happened 20 years ago."

Mrs Monaghan said she had been concerned about the intersection for the 20 years she has lived there but about two-and-a-half years ago decided to begin campaigning for change.

And now that it is finally here she said she can't believe it took so long to get it.

"I did bang a drum for a long time saying 'this can be done'," she said.

"I witnessed near misses and we just wanted to be proactive and not reactive to an injury or a fatality."

Mrs Monaghan said it was a really happy time for the whole neighbourhood, Emmanuel College and St Joseph's Primary School.

In early 2020, Emmanuel College principal Peter Morgan and South West Coast MP Roma Britnell first spoke out about the intersection saying it was an accident waiting to happen.

But it was Mrs Monaghan who rallied the community behind her after starting a Facebook page called Walk, Don't Run.

She said people were having to run to safely cross the highway, and it was so dangerous many parents didn't let their children walk to school.

"I just started petitioning in the median strip Monday to Friday asking people to toot if they wanted 40kmh," Mrs Monaghan said.

"We had the support of services like fire trucks, ambos, school buses, parents."

She said she started lobbying the council and Regional Roads Victoria and eventually that started getting some traction.

"It was complex because it is a government road and we are asking for a community facility on it, and our school actually wasn't on the road so that made it harder too," Mrs Monaghan said.

"We've just been really fortunate that we got funding."

Mrs Monaghan said on average 30 people a day had been trying to cross the road.

"We expect that will increase because more parents will let their children cross the road," she said.

Mr Morgan said they had been waiting years for the crossing to be installed.

"It's very much overdue and we're so pleased to see it," he said.

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