Suburbs with Victoria’s highest rate of graffiti

New crime statistics have revealed the worst areas in Victoria for property damage. See if your local area is a hotspot for graffiti vandals.

Melbourne is Victoria’s graffiti capital, latest crime statistics show.

The local government areas which recorded the highest number of property damage offences in 2021 have been revealed, following the release of data from the Crime Statistics Agency.

An analysis of the data by the Herald Sun found Melbourne, Mount Alexander in Victoria’s northwest and Yarra in the inner city were the three worst areas for graffiti, recording the most offences per capita.

It comes as the Saturday Herald Sun revealed the average number of requests to clean graffiti doubled in Melbourne’s CBD from 2020 to 2021.

The worst metropolitan areas for graffiti outside of Melbourne and Yarra were Maroondah, Port Phillip and Stonnington – all in the city’s east.

Melbourne recorded 383 graffiti offences in 2021, while Yarra, Maroondah, Port Phillip and Stonnington recorded 170, 100, 75 and 76 respectively.

The City of Melbourne launched a two-week “graffiti blitz” in early March to combat vandalism across the central city, Southbank and Docklands.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the “rapid response clean team” removed nearly 10,000sq m of graffiti from the central city and responded to nearly 400 jobs a day in March as part of the blitz.

Melbourne City Council’s rapid response clean team in action.

The team will now move into other neighbourhoods across the City of Melbourne.

“More than 90 per cent of all buildings and assets cleaned during the blitz were privately-owned, which shows our new approach to fast-track graffiti removal from private properties is working,” Ms Capp said.

“The clean team will now move into other neighbourhoods across the municipality to blitz graffiti over the next three months, and will continue to respond to jobs in the central city.”

Further analysis of the data by the Herald Sun revealed Melbourne has also been ranked the assault capital and drug capital of Victoria.

Graffiti in the Degraves St subway. Picture: Jason Edwards

The metropolitan areas of Wyndham and Casey in the city’s west fared well, recording only 25 and 32 graffiti offences respectively.

However, these areas have proven hot spots, not for graffiti vandals but for burglars.

Latrobe in the Gippsland region, followed by Ararat and Greater Shepparton, were the worst areas for criminal damage, recording the most offences per capita.

This type of offence most often occurs when one person intentionally damages or destroys another person’s property.

However, it was Greater Geelong which recorded the most criminal damage offences in total, racking up 1687 in 2021.

Melbourne followed closely behind with a total of 1627 offences.

The leafy Boroondara and Manningham municipalities were the quietest areas for criminal damage, logging only 401 and 218 offences respectively.

The regional areas of Murrindindi in the northeast, Central Goldfields and Wangaratta were the three worst areas for all other property damage offences, recording the most offences per capita.

This type of offence accounts for criminal activity such as tampering or interfering with a motor vehicle.