Max Hatzoglou
A building wall at entrance to the industrial estate on Fairbairn Road in Sunshine West has been repeatedly graffiti, removed and reapplied for almost a decade, sparking concerns from locals about the cost of this.
Despite it being a private property, Brimbank council’s infrastructure and city services director, Neil Whiteside confirmed that they had currently been paying for the graffiti removal as Covid-19 had put a halt to Corrections Victoria paying for a large portion of it.
“In the interim the wall has been cleaned periodically by Council’s contractor at Council’s cost, as this location has been identified as a high graffiti site given its proximity to Fairbairn Road and the bike path,” Mr Whiteside said.
Mr Whiteside did not provide an indication of the number of times the graffiti was removed although they did say they were picked up through a monitoring system.
“Clean-ups take place according to Council’s monitoring program and if the graffiti is unsightly or offensive,” he said.
“This wall is cleaned when either Council inspection determines the need, or if the graffiti has been reported.”
One local worker, Tamara, who has driven past the wall each morning for five years on the way to work has seen the wall, over 50 metres long, painted over by graffiti removalists at least every five weeks for the past five years.
“I see it (graffitied), it doesn’t really bother me but I see it painted and then graffitied a lot of times, probably every five weeks,” Tamara said.
Tamara recommended the wall could be left with graffiti on it so money could be better spent elsewhere.
Another local worker who wanted to remain anonymous said removing the graffiti was a waste.
“A lot of time is wasted painting over it because once you paint over it, within one, two or four weeks they are going to graffiti it again and then it’s going to be painted on again, it’s been going on for years,” the business person said.
The anonymous person recommended a sign to be added to the wall as a first step to stop the graffiti while also suggesting that the wall could be professionally graffitied to end the issue.
Council did not provide a figure for removing the graffiti to the particular wall although it did reveal yearly cost of graffiti removal in Brimbank.
“It is difficult to put a cost of removing graffiti at a particular location as the size and frequency varies,” Mr Whiteside said.
“Council currently spends in the order of $250,000 per year on graffiti removal across the municipality.”
The worker remaining anonymous suggested a grass patch in front of the building could be utilised for planting trees to cover the building from public viewing which would potentially deter the graffitiing.
Council said it would continue its responsibility to remove the graffiti through its Graffiti Prevention and Management Policy.
“Brimbank council has a Graffiti Prevention and Management Policy that supports council’s ongoing approach to prevention and removal of graffiti across the community,” Mr Whiteside said.
“This Policy provides a coordinated approach to reducing the incidence of unauthorised graffiti vandalism, and our work towards enhancing the appearance, character and pride in Brimbank’s public spaces.
“As an example, council has successfully installed a number of street art murals in public places across Brimbank to reduce illegal graffiti.
Council encourages people to report graffiti by using the ‘Report It’ tool on the Brimbank website or by calling council on 9249 4000.
