‘Like third world’: Heartbreak and terror in Melbourne’s crime ‘epicentre’
It was once the jewel in the crown for Melbourne. But today, one of the city’s priciest suburbs is being compared to Compton, LA and described as “like third world”.
His voice cracking, holding back tears, the broken father of a five-year-old girl poured his heart out about a crime crisis in one of Melbourne’s most lavish suburbs.
Standing before Port Phillip Council last week, he detailed the devastating attack on his little girl — the latest in a string of serious and disturbing incidents that have some describing St Kilda as “the epicentre” of Melbourne’s crime crisis and the “worst it’s been in 35 years”.
“On September 16, 2024, my five-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by an adult male on Acland St, an adult male that has a violent criminal history of attacking innocent females,” the father told councillors.
The council told news.com.au it was distressing to hear about the incident.
“Last Wednesday night many were distressed to hear a resident share an upsetting story with Council regarding his young daughter,” Mayor Louise Crawford said.
“Council takes its commitment to creating a child safe Port Phillip very seriously and will always prioritise the safety and wellbeing of our children.”
In the weeks and months that followed the attack, crime in and around St Kilda has worsened again.
In once-quiet streets a stone’s throw away from multi-million-dollar mansions and the iconic St Kilda Beach — home to celebrities and Melbourne’s wealthy elite — cars are being set alight, members of the public are being attacked with weapons and drug users are everywhere.
On January 12, a teenage boy attacked a man in St Kilda with a machete.
The 15-year-old slashed him in the back of the head, causing a 10cm-long wound, before running away.
He pleaded guilty in a children’s court and remains behind bars after he was deemed a danger to the community. His attack, the court heard, was part of a nine-month crime spree.
Have a similar story or been affected by crime in Melbourne? Get in touch: rohan.smith1@news.com.au
In a separate incident, a 79-year-old man was left bleeding from the head after being struck with a bottle on a tram in St Kilda.
“One of my elderly family members was on the tram and said a guy (passenger on the tram who appeared to be drunk/ under the influence) smashed a bottle of whisky on an elderly gentleman’s head,” a witness wrote online.
“He then threw the broken bottle towards the front of the tram, narrowly missing other passengers. The elderly man was badly injured and there was blood everywhere.”
On January 4 last year, a couple were attacked while walking along Dandenong Road in St Kilda East. Hours later, a British tourist was left in a critical condition after being stabbed in Acland St, St Kilda.
It followed the most serious incident in years in which a teenage boy was stabbed to death on St Kilda Beach in 2022. His attackers, having left the knife in the victim, returned to abuse and spit on him as he lay bleeding to death.
Hundreds of other incidents have been detailed in community groups online where residents and business owners are pleading for help — a plea that appears to be going unanswered.
‘It’s like third world’
There were 10,853 criminal incidents recorded in the City of Port Phillip in 2024 — a region that includes the suburbs of St Kilda, Albert Park, Elwood and Port Melbourne.
That number is 1000 incidents more than occurred in 2023 and represents a 10-year high for the municipality, according to data from the Crime Statistics Agency.
There were 931 assaults in 2024, the second most for a calendar year in the last decade.
There were also 219 sexual offences recorded in 2024, a number just below the 10-year high of 232 recording in 2022.
Charlotte Frajman has run the pharmacy on Fitzroy Street in the heart of St Kilda since 1990. She says St Kilda is in the grip of its worst crime wave in decades.
“It’s the worst it’s been in 35 years,” the 63-year-old told news.com.au from inside the pharmacy on Friday.
The pharmacy is directly across the road from the former Gatwick Hotel, possibly Australia’s most infamous rooming house and the site of countless crimes including several murders.
Ms Frajman says the area is worse now than it was even in the Gatwick’s worst days.
“The Gatwick was a cesspool of crime, extreme violence, illegal sales and usage of drugs, prostitution, illegal overcrowding and five murders.
“When I tell you I’ve seen everything, I mean it. It’s 100 per cent worse now. Despite how bad it was in the 90s, there was not one day even during the murders where I felt personally unsafe or fearful for my own security and wellbeing. Not one day.
“The last two and a half years have been sheer hell. Both my husband and I have been assaulted by horrible, violent, off-their-face junkies.”
Ms Frajman, who has previously described the area as “like third world” and “like Compton, Los Angeles”, said tourists were afraid to visit the area because of anti-social behaviour.
“We have had the most glorious summer, the best in about 30 years. St Kilda used to be the premium tourist precinct. But now you could shoot a bloody cannon down the street and not hit anyone.”
3AW’s Tom Elliot, describing St Kilda earlier this month, called it Melbourne’s crime “epicentre”.
Online, the anecdotal evidence appears to suggest he is right.
“Someone is seriously going to be hurt before anyone in an authority figure starts taking this seriously,” one person wrote alongside a photograph of a smashed and burned out vehicle on Grey Street earlier this week.
Another wrote that they had just witnessed a person “crossing Grey Street, brandishing a 40cm shiv”, a reference to a prison knife.
“Couldn’t believe my eyes that had his his ‘tool’ out, ready for ‘action’. Crime is so brazen, no fear of police, no discretion or covert behaviour required. Out and proud.”
Others have shared images of needles strewn around a kids playground and knives located in garden beds.
Drug-affected woman found inside new home
Among the most disturbing incidents shared in recent weeks within the Port Phillip and Bayside community is one showing a drug-affected woman inside a home in Clarinda, 15km southeast of St Kilda.
“Caught this lady and her male friend in the house I’m moving into,” the anonymous poster wrote on February 12 alongside a photograph of a woman on her knees inside the front door.
“I went back to move some more things and noticed my door was open. The guy was out the back and she was laying on the loungeroom floor, clearly drug affected.
“They gained access by smashing a window by the door. Called police, they caught the guy but unfortunately I lost track of the lady because I was dealing with the guy and by the time police went to speak to her, she had already left the area.”
The homeowner claimed the woman “went through my things, touched all my clothes, stole collectables and multiple Lego sets”.
“I’m just absolutely lost for words,” they wrote.
In suburbs along Port Phillip Bay, including affluent Brighton, Elwood and Beaumaris, an alarming rise in aggravated burglaries and break-ins has forced residents to take matters into their own hands and hire private security.
The Bayside Mayor, Hanna EI Mouallem, wrote to the state government asking for an urgent meeting last month after his home was targeted in an aggravated burglary.
“Like the rest of my community, we are deeply troubled by the severity and brazenness of these crimes,” Mr El Mouallem wrote in the letter.
News.com.au has spoken to a number of victims of aggravated burglaries, including one woman who has on five separate occasions had young men attempt to break into her home after dark.
Mayor Crawford has been forced to address the concerns from local residents. On social media this week she revealed that council has written to the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police “seeking advice and recommendations on local laws in the City of Port Phillip, and a proposal on how any changes to the local laws would be used and work in practice” to reduce crime.
She highlighted a number of initiatives in place already aimed at improving safety and amenity in the community, including “investing in CCTV in Fitzroy Street to enable police to monitor activity”, “purchasing a mobile CCTV unit that Victoria Police move around the City to deter poor behaviour” and “introducing a 7 day a week Rapid Response crew to provide ‘instant’ response to incidents”.
But local man James Radalj is among Cr Crawford’s critics. Mr Radalj, who is behind a petition calling for a safer community, says he wrote to every councillor about the issue a year ago. Ms Crawford, he claims, is the only member of council who did not write back.
Ms Frajman, who will continue to work six days a week at the pharmacy on Fitzroy Street because she has no other choice, says nobody wants to take the blame.
“Council blames police. Police blame council. And they both blame the state government.”
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