By Jed Lanyon
Yarra Valley residents have had a good laugh this week upon discovering a misspelt road sign along Wattle Avenue in Mount Evelyn.
The road sign, which reads ‘Walltle Av’ had been up for some time before a keen-eyed local pointed out the mistake.
We here at Star Mail will be the first to point out that mistakes happen, and that even the slightest spelling error can make it all the way into one of our print editions. But we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share the story behind Walltle Avenue.
Wattle Avenue resident, Jane (not her real name), believed the old sign had to be replaced after being struck by a car, making way for the new Walltle Avenue sign.
But Jane said even she hadn’t taken notice of the error to the sign until it was pointed out to her by someone who lives all the way on the other side of Mount Evelyn.
Jane’s parcels often get mixed up and sent to an address across town on the similarly named, Wattle Valley Road. And as we adapt to a world living with the coronavirus, we are forced to turn to buying online to continue our shopping habits.
Jane found that more of her deliveries were being sent to the wrong address time and time again, so much so that she has made friends with the lady who happens to receive the majority of her parcels on Wattle Valley Road. The pair often organise to catch up to exchange mail to the correct address.
“It’s a shiny, fairly fresh sign,” she said. “I must admit that I didn’t notice it until a thoughtful resident of Wattle Valley Road was re-delivering a parcel to me. She and her neighbour noticed it immediately.”
“We live in a tiny little dead end road here on Wattle Avenue and we only have a few houses.
You come around the corner, but you never really look at the signposts.”
Jane admitted that she wasn’t always so lucky to have friendly citizens looking out for her errant mail, noting that she had lost several deliveries during her 32 year residence on Wattle Avenue.
“It makes it terribly hard now in the current situation we’re in and the amount of parcels being delivered has escalated enormously. God only knows where half these things are going.”
She posted the sign to social media questioning if the spelling error had been the reason why she had lost some of her mail as of late.
Councillor Tim Heenan saw the lighter side of the issue, commenting, “Who didn’t check the spelling at Council? Naughty… I betcha it was put up on September 1st. Walltle Day.”
While, Councillor Tony Stevenson apologised and shared the sign had immediately been replaced upon the discovery of the error and that a new sign had been installed, accurately highlighting the correct name.
“I hope now it may be able to assist alien couriers who might have no idea where they are,” Jane said.
