Residents erupt after incident at controversial roundabout: 'A mess'

Yahoo

30-06-2025

Merely days after a major city council removed a now-infamous diamond-shaped roundabout, which left local drivers confused and made national headlines, a crash has been reported at the spot.
Fifteenth Avenue in Austral, in Sydney's southwest, is set to become a key arterial route to the new Western Sydney Airport. It has recently seen a flurry of roadworks, with three new roundabouts installed in quick succession — among them, a new one on Twenty Eighth Avenue.
Utterly baffled motorists were mystified over how to use it, with many opting to ignore it and drive straight over. Footage captured by Yahoo on Friday showed several motorists driving right through the diamond-shaped roundabout, including a large truck and several SUVs.
A local councillor branded the design "embarrassing" and over the weekend, it was eventually painted over. Council said it would install a regular, circular-shaped roundabout in its place, but on Monday, in the absence of any roundabout at all, an accident occurred at the site.
Footage of the crash appeared on social media, and a NSW Police spokeswoman confirmed to Yahoo News that a collision between a car and a truck took place just before 1pm.
While paramedics attended the scene, no injuries were recorded.
Though online, locals lashed out at what they described as a preventable ordeal.
"People over the weekend were still driving like the roundabout was still there, it's confused people and it's a bloody mess," a woman said. "Their fixing up still shows the shape, so people don't know what to do. They should have fixed the entire intersection."
"It was bound to happen," another wrote. "Whoever approved this roundabout should take responsibility for this," a third said. Aerial vision suggests there was ample space for a standard circular roundabout, with the diamond design seemingly chosen due to the angled layout of Twenty Eighth Avenue.
Yahoo News has sought an explanation from Liverpool City Council on the new roundabout. "There is no roundabout, it's gone," a council spokesperson told Yahoo News on Saturday. "We listened to our residents. It was a design that didn't work.
"There were lots of complaints about it, so the simplest thing to do was to get rid of it." Local MP Nathan Hagarty was also on the scene on Saturday to mark the occasion. "Cars are still stopping, they're not sure what to do," he said in a video posted to constituents on social media.
"But as far as I'm concerned, this is not the end of this disgraceful saga. I have had a look at the original designs, and what I can say is that the designs I saw do not match what was delivered, so I think some serious questions need to be asked to Liverpool Council and the contractors... how much money has been wasted?" he said.
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