Row is berry nasty

By Melissa Meehan
IT’S becoming an all too familiar scene.
Yelling, screaming and tears – along with a groundswell of community support.
Garfield Berry Farm owner Maria Doherty says she and her family are fighting a David and Goliath battle, but will not back down.
Despite meeting with VicRoads in April and believing they had reached some kind of understanding, Ms Doherty said workers again arrived on Friday to remove signs along the roadside.
“We thought they were going to go away and come back to us with a solution,” she said.
“Instead they just came along and took the signs and now it’s turned into another big s… fight.”
Unaware that the signs were being taken down, Ms Doherty said customers were the ones who notified her of what was going on.
“We had customers rushing in, people parking on the side of the road yelling at the workers to stop,” she said.
“There were no notices, no consultation – it’s the same thing all over again.”
Ms Doherty said she and her mum Francesca, known to most as Nonna, felt they were being harassed by VicRoads.
“They have their tactics, they ridicule you and they don’t care what all this is doing to our business,” she said.
“Maybe they want to acquire more of our land, maybe this is what it is all about, why else would they target us?”
The land adjacent to the freeway, which the Berry sign sits on, was compulsorily acquired by VicRoads 20 years ago.
During their talks in April, Ms Doherty said she and VicRoads had agreed to put up the brown and white tourist signs, with the opportunity to advertise in-season produce.
“Now we don’t know where we stand, we haven’t heard a thing from them – they just come and take the signs we put out before the driveway so people know to slow down,” she said.
“For all we know they could be back next week to take down the big berry again.
“And mum, she just can’t believe it’s still happening – it has put her, and me under a lot of stress.”
VicRoads comment was not available prior to going to press.