Grass maintenance

Council is responsible for maintaining the grass and garden beds in local parks and along local roads. If it’s alongside a main road however, that may be VicRoads or another government agency. Please refer to the Roads Maintenance page for a list of roads managed by VicRoads.

If it’s a privately-owned block of land, it’s the owner of the land.

Council aims to cut its grass and maintain garden beds every three or four weeks. However, wet weather can impact our schedule, meaning that it may take longer than usual to get to certain areas. 

If there are days of wet weather or a large deluge of rain, it may be difficult to get machinery into some areas to cut the grass. Where the ground is too wet to use heavy machinery without damaging the surface or compromising safety, we will cut as much as we can with lighter equipment on areas next to paths, fences and roadsides. When it dries out, additional crews will be back to finish the work.

Maintenance crews are separated into a mowing crew and a clean-up crew as they use different equipment. The clean-up crew is responsible for detailing work and tidying up clippings. This crew aims to follow the mowing crew within 24 hours, however this may be delayed if there is heavy rainfall.

Garden beds are maintained on a separate three or four weekly cycle by a different crew to the mowing crew. The equipment and expertise required to maintain the garden beds differ to that required for mowing.

Council uses a slashing machine to cut spring/summer grass on roadsides. This is part of fire preparation work and is done in rural and urban fringe areas three times during this season.

The first slash will be done as close to the start of the fire danger period (usually late spring or early summer) as possible. It is normal that grass is longer in the lead up to the first slashing. Then it will be slashed during summer as the grass grows again to manage fire risk.