Machete drop off points revealed ahead of three-month amnesty to dispose of soon-to-be illegal weapons

One of the state’s top cops has asked parents of machete-wielding teen criminals to find their weapons and dispose of them at the state’s new knife bins. Search the full list of locations here.

One of the state’s top cops has asked parents of machete-wielding teen criminals to find their weapons and dispose of them at the state’s new knife bins.

Victoria Police’s Brett Curran on Thursday called for parents to find their kids’ weapons and take them down to one of the new CCTV-monitored bins outside police stations from September.

“These bins provide an opportunity for families who might be concerned about the bins their kids have to get those … machetes, knives (and) bring them down to the centre from the first of September and put them in those bins,” he said.

Mr Curran said 10 per cent of the victims of machete attacks were under 18 while more than one in five offenders were children.

“That’s a concerning figure, and we want to get those machetes and knives off these children,” he said.

One of the of the 45 machete safe disposal bins. Picture: Supplied

However, Mr Curran conceded that the weapons weren’t going to simply “disappear” and that criminals would find new weapons, including those “readily available in your kitchen”.

“We’re not saying that this is going to make all the knives disappear, we’re going to continue to enforce the law,” he said.

“We have been arresting people at record levels and we have been seizing these items at record levels.”

Premier Jacinta Allan backed the senior cop’s call for concerned parents to seize the weapons, saying the bins would give them the chance to strip the dangerous knives from their troublemaking teens.

“As a parent, I know kids can be challenging from time to time, when they’ve got something they want to do,” she said.

“But this is too serious for that.

“And I know parents are concerned.

“They want help, and we’re giving it to them through banning the sale and possession of machetes and making it as easy as possible for these dangerous weapons to be disposed of.”

It comes as dozens of police stations have been identified as machete drop off points ahead of a three-month amnesty to dispose of the soon-to-be illegal weapons.

Victoria will become the first state to implement a machete ban from September 1, with those caught carrying the weapon facing jail terms or fines of up to $47,00.

Now the Herald Sun can reveal the 45 locations where weapons will be able to be disposed of in secure bins at police stations across metropolitan and rural Victoria.

They include stations in prominent crime hotspots including Dandenong, the city of Casey and the City of Geelong which have been rife with home invasions.

The heavy duty, secure, steel bins, will also be located in areas including Shepparton, Sunshine, Heidelberg, Footscray and Melton.

A three-month amnesty will run from September 1 to November 30.

The machete ban was prompted by the Herald Sun’s Suburbs Under Siege campaign which highlighted the dangerous escalation in knife attacks and aggravated home invasion.

Last year, a record number of machetes and dangerous knives – almost 15,000 – were seized by Victoria Police.

Crime data has also revealed that the bloody and escalating knife violence plaguing the streets has led to the stabbing death of 23 men aged 25 and under since 2020.

“These knives destroy lives, so we’re taking them off the streets,” Jacinta Allan said.

“Victorians have zero tolerance for knife crime and so do we – we’re enacting this ban and boosting Victoria Police’s powers because community safety always comes first.”

Exemptions will be in place for people wanting to hold a machete for legitimate purposes including agricultural use.

The Premier implemented the ban after a knife attack at Northland Shopping Centre.

Police minister Anthony Carbines said the ban would keep weapons away from youth offenders.

“We’re backing Victoria Police who work tirelessly to get these weapons out of young people’s hands and keep people safe,” he said.

“Our message to anyone with these weapons is simple, get rid of them or face the consequences.”

The Allan government pushed legislation through parliament in March to outlaw the weapons amid more than a year of calls to implement the measure and mounting pressure to respond to the state’s youth crime crisis.

But the government resisted calls to fastback the statewide ban.

Instead the Premier implemented an almost immediate ban on the sale of machetes following an horrific knife attack at Northland Shopping Centre in May.

Since then inspections across more than 470 retailers have uncovered seven stores and one market vendor found to be flouting the ban.

Originally published as Machete drop off points revealed ahead of three-month amnesty to dispose of soon-to-be illegal weapons