Julie Brennan was disgusted when she saw poo on the walls of a toilet block, sewerage water clogging the basin and toilet paper strewn across the floor at a busy Mount Ousley rest stop.
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She stopped at the Mount Ousley heavy vehicle rest area to take her grandchildren to the toilet after they left her home in Greenwell Point in the Shoalhaven region on January 12.
Ms Brennan was too nauseated from the smell and flies and would not let her grandchildren use the toilets.
She labelled the toilets “totally unacceptable”.
“I couldn’t walk on the floor, all five toilets were blocked as were the basins,” Ms Brennan said. “The disabled toilet was the worst. There was poo up the wall.”
Ms Brennan put her grandchildren back in the car and took them to another toilet.
The rest area, near the intersection of the M1 Princes Motorway and Clive Bissell Drive, was upgraded with new facilities in June 2017.
She is calling on Roads and Maritime Services to clean and better maintain the facilities.
“I know members of the public can be pigs but the RMS should be cleaning the toilets more often and especially in peak tourism season,” she said.
“Wollongong is promoted as a tourism destination.
“Imagine what the tourists who stopped to use the toilets would have thought.
“We don’t live in a third world country.”
Ms Brennan said she spoke to the volunteers of the Wollongong Lions Club caravan shed who provide refreshments to drivers.
They said the toilets had been in a disgusting state since Christmas.
A Roads and Maritime Services spokeswoman said the toilets were closed from January 12 to 14 because the sewer tanks were not emptied.
“Temporary portable toilets were provided onsite during this period and cleaned on schedule,” she said.
“The toilets were reopened and the portable toilets removed last Tuesday.”
Ms Brennan said there was definitely no portable toilets or ‘closed’ signs when she was there.
The spokeswoman said RMS staff cleaned the toilets at the rest stop every two days and sometimes daily during busy periods.
“Plumbing and other repairs are carried out as needed to ensure the facilities remain to the highest standards for our customers,” she said.
