‘Injecting room out’: Residents demand action as Richmond drug room threatens public safety
Frustrated residents and traders have taken to the streets of Richmond to demand improved safety around the safe injecting room - but not everyone is in support of the movement.
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More than a hundred frustrated residents and business owners are taking to the streets of Richmond to demand the state government improve safety around the safe injecting room.
The large group gathered at North Richmond station around 11am Sunday where community members spoke with attendees about the influx of crime and anti-social behaviour in the area.
Attendees, some bearing Australian flags and placards saying “noodles not needles” and “make our streets safe,” were addressed by multiple speakers, including Yarra Council Mayor and fellow distressed residents.
Sunday’s demonstration comes after a recent Yarra Council survey revealed almost 50 per cent of residents do not feel safe when out in public at night.
The group began marching down Victoria St toward Williams St about 11.30am as the crowd chanted “injecting room, out, out, out”.
Independent candidate Anthony Koutoufides later addressed the crowd, declaring “North Richmond is in crisis.”
“Families and children are witnessing flagrant drug use and aggressive behaviour on a daily basis,” he told the crowd.
“The current location of the injecting room has failed, it must be moved to a more appropriate site where help can still be provided. This has been allowed to happen because Labor and the Greens have failed to listen and act.”
State Liberal Leader Brad Battin also spoke to attendees, addressing Victoria’s current crime rates and the impact it is having on community.
“There are too many places around here that are closed, and it is simply because crime is out of control here in Victoria,” he said
“A priority is to fix our bail system so you don’t continue to see people go into the system and back out, quicker than it takes for the police to do the paperwork to process them.”
“Families don’t want to come to areas like this, they don’t want to come here and support your businesses.”
Independent candidate Tim Smith also addressed the rally saying that “crime is out of control” and the situation needs to change: “The amount of violent attacks that are drug related, shows that change needs to happen,” he said.
“As a community we need to bind together and we need to fight this.
“Things have not gotten better, they have gotten worse.”
One concerned parent, a part of the rally this morning, told the Herald Sun her young son discovered a machete at a playground meters from the injecting room earlier this month.
The woman, who wished not to be identified, shared a startling image of the blade allegedly discovered on April 14 this year.
She said it had been her son and his friends, walking past a playground nearby North Richmond Community Health, who first discovered the weapon.
“When they were walking home they noticed what they thought was the handle of a knife,” she said.
“When he told me, we went back and pulled it out of the bush ... it was huge.”
She said she was “really shocked” at how big the blade was and its proximity to a kids playground, but unfortunately, she wasn’t surprised to find the weapon.
Meanwhile, a counter rally involving dozens of people gathered on nearby Butler St just after midday in support of the injecting room as speakers highlighted he positive impact of the site.
The group then marched down Lennox St to the injecting room, applauding the staff members in the room before holding a minute silence for those impacted by drug use.
Senate candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Party Fiona Patten, who joined the counter rally, said Victorians must “support our healthcare facilities.”
“I have been an avid champion for this type of healthcare facility, it saves the lives of thousands of people and also sets them on a path to recovery,” she said, calling for greater investment into the facility.
“As the generations change, there are great opportunities to be doing different things here, by we’ve got to invest in it,” she said.
“We’ve got to support the people in our community whether they’re marginalised drug users or whether they’re small businesses trying to make a go on Victoria St.”
There was a minor altercation with one woman seen being questioned by police at the scene.
It comes after the Herald Sun previously revealed streets surrounding the contentious injecting room – a brain child of former premier Daniel Andrews – had become littered with huge amounts of needles and human waste that transformed the area into a “ghetto”.
Disgusted residents told this masthead at the time that schoolchildren are forced to put up with the “appalling” amounts of rubbish on their way to and from Richmond West Primary School.
One fed-up local said the area now resembled a “ghetto” with the amount of rubbish left in and around streets, footpaths, alleyways and gardens.
“It’s just appalling, it’s disgusting,” Chrissy told the Herald Sun.
“It’s all over the place, no one gives a s – t, the place looks like a ghetto.
“There is rubbish all through the garden’s playground, I saw a guy doing a shit in the garden with kids everywhere, no one cares.
“There are signs saying ‘no dumping’ but people just dump boxes of needles everywhere.”
Further crime statistics since revealed that in 2024 alone, there were almost 12,500 criminal incidents reported in the Yarra Council area - the highest rate since 2015.
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