Graffiti and rubbish blight Southbank despite record council spend

Southbank residents say they are fed up with the mounting graffiti and overflowing rubbish bins in the area, despite the City of Melbourne declaring cleaning a top priority of this council term and committing almost $60 million in its most recent budget to the so-called “war on graffiti”.

At the September 16 Future Melbourne Committee meeting, Southbank Residents’ Association (SRA) president Tony Penna confronted councillors with dozens of photographs showing tags scrawled across bridges, bins spilling over onto pavements, and poorly executed graffiti removals.

“I walk everywhere around Southbank and the city, averaging 15 kilometres a day, so I see a lot,” Mr Penna told councillors. “I’ve made over 150 reports to the council website. Surely, I must be the number one reporter.”

Among the images was an overflowing rubbish bin on Elizabeth St which, he said, was reported at midday but not emptied until midnight, when the council’s regular nightly collection took place.

“My experience with reporting rubbish bins is they never get acted upon. Surely, we can access those outside of the system,” he said.

Mr Penna also accused the council of reactive rather than proactive cleaning, pointing to sites such as the Sandridge Bridge and the Red Stairs at Southbank that are “frequently targeted” but not inspected unless residents file reports.

“Would it not be possible to have the team visit these sites regularly? Why can’t we be proactive? If I were to make a report for each of those, it would take me hours using your system to report them all,” he said.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece conceded the issue was “frustrating”, but insisted the council had never worked harder to keep the city clean.

“I want this council to be judged by the job we do in cleaning up the city,” he said. “Are we there yet? No, we’re not. But I do think we are moving in the right direction.”

The council’s head of cleaning and safety, Cr Rafael Camillo, acknowledged residents’ frustrations.

“I feel your frustration every single day,” he said. “Maybe we need to put more people to walk around just to identify, as you say, have early intervention to avoid a lot of complaints.”

Cr Camillo cited figures showing graffiti removals had jumped by 54 per cent in the past year, with average response times cut to just over a day. But he admitted the problem was escalating.

“We need to understand why graffiti is increasing. That is the big challenge for us,” he said.

City of Melbourne CEO Alison Leighton also defended the council’s record, pointing out that more than 140,000 square metres of graffiti had been removed over the past year – the largest volume in the city’s history.

She said the council was trialling automated reporting systems such as Snap Send Solve to speed up the process, while also working with state government authorities where graffiti appeared on heritage bridges or government-owned assets.

The council’s general manager of infrastructure and amenity Rick Kwasek told councillors the council would soon roll out new solar-compactor bins, which send alerts when they are full.

But Mr Penna said he had heard similar promises before.

“I was in this forum several years ago when they were introducing the ‘Big Belly’ bins, which do exactly that. They were meant to send the signals and there was a big hoo-ha in this forum … this is not new.”

The exchange highlighted the growing frustration among Southbankers that the city’s most visited waterfront is falling short of expectations. Despite millions spent on cleaning, the sight of graffiti tags across bridges and stairways and litter piled around bins continues to mar the Yarra River precinct.

Cr Reece said conversations with state ministers and agencies were ongoing to address graffiti on VicRoads and VicTrack assets. “We can do better as a city,” he said. “Your vigilance in keeping the pressure on is actually a big help. So, let’s keep going, let’s get the job done.”

For Mr Penna and many locals, however, patience is wearing thin.

“Who are we holding to account? Someone needs to reach out if they can’t action it – not just close the case and leave graffiti there for months,” he said. •