The road, known as Barkstead Rd - or Leonards Hill-Barkstead Rd - links Barkstead to the Ballan-Daylesford Rd to the north.

Once the shire's responsibility, the Department of Sustainability and Environment now owns Barkstead Rd.

Mr Coll said the DSE was responsible for the maintenance of the road, but only to the standard of a forest track.

He said the area, which was flanked by plantation and native forests, was an inferno waiting to happen and if a fire started from the south-east the "track" would be their only way out.

"We want the road fixed in a way that will enable us to get out," Mr Coll said.

"If you've got to move in a hurry there's no way you're going to be able to do more than 40 kilometres an hour.

"If they're in a real panic there's gonna be a real tragedy."

Mr Coll said he didn't care who took responsibility for fixing the road, whether it was the shire, the DSE or even VicRoads, as long as something was done.

The problem was local residents paid their rates to Moorabool Shire, not Hepburn, Mr Cole said.

He said Moorabool had graded its side of the road and if a fire came from the north-east if would be an ideal escape route.

The Hepburn side was in a different state altogether, ungraded and full of potholes.

Mr Coll said Barkstead may not pay rates to Hepburn but it was closely associated with the shire through tourism and business.

"With Barkstead, its place for shopping and everything is Daylesford, regardless of whether it's in the Moorabool Shire," he said.

"If the place is burnt to a cinder and you can't get in you're not going to have tourists going in with their quad bikes or dirt bikes."

Mr Coll said residents were afraid, but they were not the sort of people to complain.

He said people had lived in Barkstead for generations.

"You get the message that people shouldn't be living in places like this. People have lived in Barkstead for over 100 years," Mr Coll said.

"There's all these messages from the State Government about fire safety and it's all about what people will do on their own properties. There is no discussion about what they will do on public land."