Residents fed up with “hoon playground” at ACCA forecourt

Residents and authorities have condemned reckless hoons who have been tearing up a forecourt at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), as well as a neighbouring park.

A concerned Southbank resident, who has regularly witnessed the behaviour and filmed a car ripping up the granitic sand of the forecourt from their apartment tower on May 20, slammed those responsible.

“As a local resident, every weekend I have to listen to idiot hoons revving their engines, performing burnouts etc. on the ACCA forecourt,” they said, requesting anonymity.

“Usually there will be one or two groups that arrive on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Some groups take their car photos and leave quietly but other groups will do the full idiot display; smoking their wheels, rev limiting their engines.

“We’ve also had our neighbourhood park [across the road from ACCA] vandalised by the same idiots who are attracted to the forecourt.”

 “I’ve never seen a Victoria Police Highway Patrol patrolling around there once.”

The resident reported the issue to ACCA, which stated it was “indeed dangerous and erratic driving” and would be taking action.

“ACCA is working closely with Creative Victoria and the City of Melbourne on developing a plan for the ACCA forecourt to improve its amenity for our visitors and the local community,” it said in a statement.

“In the meantime, we have confirmed that officers from the City of Melbourne will be patrolling the area more regularly to address car activity.”

The ACCA forecourt is set to be turned into a green pocket park with the City of Melbourne 2023-24 Budget confirming a funding allocation of $1.5 million from the state government towards the project. Further announcements are expected to be made later this year.

Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said the council would work closely with Victoria Police to ensure the hoon behaviour was “stamped out”.

“There is no room for hoon drivers in the City of Melbourne. We will be keeping a very close eye on the ACCA precinct to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Cr Reece said.

“I hope they [hoons] have got plenty of value on their e-tags and they drive back to where they came from.”

“This episode provides another reason for why it would be a great idea to convert the forecourt into a new green space and a new park for Southbank.”

Meanwhile, the resident who had been documenting the behaviour, said they had had enough.

“I’m sick of it and I’m going to video it from now on and keep reporting it until something is done about it, preferably by turning the ACCA forecourt from its current wasteland into something useful for the community,” they said.

More green space for residents would be a much better use of the space than a hoon playground in my opinion.

Southbank Police Commander, Senior Sergeant Alex O’Toole, said that while she wasn’t specifically aware of the incidents, police had a zero-tolerance approach for hoon behaviour and dangerous driving, with units actively patrolling the city.

“If something is happening at the time, call Triple Zero (000) for police to respond,” she said, adding residents were otherwise encouraged to report incidents to police.

Anyone with information about illegal hoon activity is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via crimestoppersvic.com.au •