Residents living around television’s latest The Block development are counting the days until workers pack up and leave after months of misery in the idyllic location.
Channel Nine’s renovation series has worn out its welcome after causing what some locals describe as ‘traffic chaos’ in and around the construction site on Phillip Island – the iconic spot 90 minutes from Melbourne where the famous fairy penguins come ashore in groups.
On Friday, Daily Mail Australia watched enormous big rigs carting palm trees into the construction site, which is positioned in a former Cowes resort along a narrow street ironically named Justice Road.
A truck hauling a large palm tree into The Block struggles to make it around a roundabout on Friday
The Block’s host Scott Cam films at Phillip Island on Friday
Phillip Island residents have lashed out at traffic around The Block construction site
‘There’s no justice along this road,’ one weary resident said.
‘It’s been chaos along here for months. We can’t wait ’til they rack off.’
Construction workers descended on the site in February, sparking what for some residents seems like an endless procession of traffic along a road also used by busloads of tourists en route to the nightly penguin parade.
One resident told Daily Mail Australia the traffic issues were mainly caused by large trucks carting The Block’s building supplies being forced to queue along the street.
They can be lined up for up to three hours, locals said, because there was only one entrance in and out of the property where the homes were being constructed.
The trucks often idle on the road for hours on end with their engines spewing fumes into the air, residents claimed.
‘It’s not ideal, but what can you do?’ one female neighbour said, who wished to remain anonymous.
‘We can’t wait to see the back of them.’
Daily Mail Australia spoke to a swag of neighbours living around the controversial construction site who have suffered over the past three months.
Phillip Island residents living around The Block site say trucks entering and leaving the site are causing ‘chaos’
Trucks seen lining Justice Road into The Block on Friday
Phillip Island is known worldwide for its Little Penguin parades
Some claimed construction workers initially butchered their lawns by driving their trucks up and over the kerb, but they said that problem eased during their three-month ordeal.
But the local construction traffic continued to annoy them, most said, particularly with the way trucks enter and leave the site.
‘I’ve almost had two head-on crashes because the traffic controllers are not doing their job properly,’ another resident said.
The elderly local was spotted on Friday staring at the entrance to The Block as trucks entered and departed the site.
‘I don’t want to cause trouble, but I don’t want to have an accident either,’ he said.
The resident reflected the attitude of many spoken to by Daily Mail Australia on Friday.
They believed The Block had managed to escape being fined because TV chiefs intervened and enforced a crackdown.
‘They used to park up on the nature strips and such, but the production has cracked down on them and got pretty strict,’ another local said.
‘The council says you cannot plant trees on your nature strip because you can’t see when you drive out – but take a look at all those trucks, you can’t see anything!’
With only a week of the planned construction remaining, some residents have begun to speculate on who might purchase the homes and become their new neighbours.
Some locals claim traffic management has been subpar
The Block host Shelley Craft on Friday at the construction site at Phillip Island
A McCafe across the road from last year’s construction site annoyed neighbours when they stopped serving them free coffee
Adrian Portelli (right) has a habit of buying a property from The Block
‘Lambo Guy’ Adrian Portelli has a history of purchasing Block properties for insanely high prices before putting them up as star prizes in his lotteries.
‘The noise of construction I can handle,’ said one resident positioned directly across the road from The Block.
‘But I dunno if I could handle him [Portelli] tearing up the neighbourhood. Think I’ll pack up and sell.’
Neighbourhood gripes have come part and parcel with production of The Block.
Just last year, residents living around The Block in leafy Hampton lashed out when a makeshift McCafe in their street suddenly stopped serving them free coffees.
Other residents complained that some stars of the show ‘illegally’ blocked entry to their private driveways.
In March last year, Daily Mail Australia reported residents were angry with The Block creator and executive producer Julian Cress himself after parking his $500,000 Porsche on the street.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment.
Trucks parked along Justice Road on Friday outside The Block
Some residents have erected fences outside their homes to try and keep construction worker trucks off their property