Campaspe Shire Council has voted to decline a community petition calling for the council to accept ownership, management and responsibility of the Toolleen Wayside Stop and Toilet Facility.

The decision follows a formal request that council assume ownership and responsibility, which was submitted in November 2025, by chief petitioner and member of the Toolleen Recreation Reserve Committee of Management Jacinta Carboon.

The request reflects the committee’s current incapacity to sustain the financial and operational resources required to maintain the facility.

A community petition was then submitted to council, and tabled at the April 21 council meeting, with 572 signatures advocating for council to review and provide support of service including infrastructure, cleaning and maintenance of the Toolleen Wayside Stop.

At the June 16 council meeting, councillors voted in favour of a recommendation that council thank the petitioners and decline the request to accept ownership, management and responsibility for the Toolleen Wayside Stop and Toilet Facility.

The facility sits on crown land at the intersection of Cornella-Toolleen Rd and Northern Hwy, and responsibility of management rests with the Toolleen Recreation Reserve Committee of Management under an arrangement finalised in 2006.

Cr Tony Marwood moved the motion to decline the committee’s request, seconded by Cr Zoe Cook.

“This is not on council land, it is not a council project, it’s not council infrastructure, so I don’t think it’s something that we should be taking on,” Cr Marwood said.

Cr Marwood emphasised how the council had restructured to make budget savings to be able to have the budget that was adopted at the June 16 council meeting.

“For us to then go and take on a project and fund a project that’s not actually ours, I don’t think it’s the correct thing to do,” he said.

“It’s not just cleaning toilets; there’s a lot more to this than that.”

At the council meeting it was mentioned that the facility, which is 25 years old, had an assumed useful life of 50 years.

The whole-life-cost estimate, for its remaining life cycle, if council took over the existing Toolleen public toilet, including operation costs, upgrade works and future full replacement or renewal, would total more than $1 million at today’s rate.

Speaking against the motion, Cr Jessica Mitchell said she didn’t feel like council had all the information to be able to consider it fully, noting that the wayside stop was the first impression of the gateway to the municipality.

Cr Mitchell foreshadowed that if the motion was lost, she would have an alternate motion to defer the decision and request for officers to gather more information and identify potential partnership opportunities to sustain the facility.

Also speaking against the motion, Cr Adrian Weston said that he did support declining the request for council to accept ownership, but he was disinclined to support the rest of the motion on the basis that it would be useful to have more information.

When put to the vote, the motion passed 4-3, with Crs Marwood, Cook, Rob Amos and Daniel Mackrell voting in support, while Crs Mitchell, Weston and Paul Jarman voted against.

Following the vote, council will not assume ownership and management of the facility but has committed to working alongside the committee to advocate to the Victorian Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action to provide ongoing support and funding to the committee for the continued management and maintenance of the Toolleen Wayside Stop and Toilet Facility.

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Wednesday, 2nd June 2027

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