‘Time to clean up clown hall’: City of Melb slammed over graffiti eyesores

Melbourne Council has been slammed over huge, unsightly graffiti that has remained untouched on key CBD sites for weeks over the busiest period of the year.

Graffiti was left covering a hoarding for a key City of Melbourne project on a prominent CBD bridge for weeks and a tag with a homophobic slur was left untouched underneath a city bridge for New Year’s Eve.

Council Watch president Dean Hurlston said the City of Melbourne was unable to get the basics right.

“One of the most important items in council’s plan is cleanliness of public spaces,” he said.

“This is the CBD’s busiest time of the year – why isn’t Sally Capp out there helping?

“It’s time to clean up clown hall.”

Huge and unsightly tags have been scrawled over the black hoarding on the Princes Bridge for Town Hall’s project to repair the bluestone on the heritage-listed infrastructure.

The graffiti has been left there for weeks, with tens of thousands of revellers on New Year’s Eve walking past the vandalism.

Homophobic graffiti has been left under Sandridge bridge since last December.

The section of St Kilda Rd on Princes Bridge was closed to vehicles on New Year’s Eve and pedestrians were encouraged to use the route to get across the Yarra.

A homophobic slur was tagged underneath Sandridge Bridge and not cleaned up for New Year’s Eve, the busiest night in the city.

The derogatory tag was left untouched between December 27 and January 2.

Graffiti removal teams removed other tags on Sandridge Bridge in the lead up to New Year’s Eve but did not remove the homophobic slur and several other large tags underneath the bridge that were highly visible to anyone on the riverside walkway.

The council’s own Inclusive Melbourne Strategy 2022-32 highlights that LGBTIQ+ groups are more likely to feel concerned about their physical safety.

Huge tags on a hoarding on Princess Bridge — one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares — have been left for weeks by the City of Melbourne.

The repeated slow response times to fix graffiti on key city sites comes just weeks after Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece spruiked how effective a new city cleaning contract would be when it comes into effect in a few months.

“Under the new plan Melburnians can expect to see boots on the ground 24 hours a day, seven days a week – the work of keeping Melbourne clean will literally never stop,” he said in December.

“The best deterrent to crack down on repeat offenders is to remove graffiti as soon as possible – and that’s why we’re increasing patrols around the clock with a 100 per cent new fleet of clean up vehicles.”

A City of Melbourne spokesman said the bluestone walls along Southbank Promenade were cleaned once per week and were last cleaned on January 2.

The graffiti on the hoarding on Princes Bridge was only removed after it was raised by the Herald Sun with the City of Melbourne.