Horsham residents left with hole in nature strip for weeks

She's had to put her mother into a nursing home and pack up and sell her mother's house.

During the move, the old stormwater drain on Ms Isbel nature strip broke and collapsed. The hole was a size of a car wheel.

As any resident would, Ms Isbel reached out to get the hole covered and the broken pipe repaired.

Given the hole had Telstra and nbn cables running through it, she contacted both.

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It would be over a month before the issue was resolved.

"My mother had a stroke in April and ended up in a nursing home in Natimuk," Ms Isbel said.

"We had to sell her house to pay for her nursing home, and I ended up purchasing it.

"Early August, we were starting to get the place ready to sell. We were using the nature strip, and it caved in.

"It just continued to cave and crumble from there."

Ms Isbel said she first contacted Horsham Rural City Council, who could place boards over the hole and a warning sign, but she was told that the council couldn't fix the hole themselves.

" A week later the council notified me to say that it was a Telstra problem," she said.

"I got in touch with Telstra and they came about a week later and they said it was an nbn problem."

Ms Isbel said she was told by nbn that it was a Telstra problem after emailing photos.

"It was continuously going," she said.

"No-one will accept responsibility and I've got this mess out on my front lawn."

Ms Isbel said the running around trying to get it fixed was stressful, she said she was "disgusted" by the lack of support.

"I've never dealt with anything like this before," she said.

"They keep saying that they'll check it out for me.

"I'm just waiting for someone to get back to me."

Since the Wimmera-Mail Times spoke with Ms Isbel and reached out to nbn and Telstra, the hole has been repaired.

A Telstra technician investigated the hole on Thursday, September 23, the hole was filled in over the weekend.

"Were sorry she's been given the run around and we have now repaired the issue," Telstra Regional Manager Steve Tinker said.

An nbn spokesperson said at no stage did nbn refer the resident to Telstra or any other body.

After discussing with the resident, the referrals mentioned in the media enquiry were from council to Telstra to nbn.

"nbn was made aware of damage to a conduit through stormwater damage on August, 26 2021 impacting the resident's nbn service. After initial investigations we have arranged repair via qualified tradespeople at the residents earliest convenience," an nbn spokesperson said.

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