Two smiling faces are staring back at me from the mud on the side of a dirt road in Melbourne’s west.
They photos are lovely and happy — a stark contrast to everything around them for as far as the eye can see.
Books, shoes, blankets, children’s toys, toilets, lounge suites, mattresses, office chairs, rolls of old carpet and other pieces of assorted household furniture are littered among piles of rubbish on this quiet Truganina road surrounded by lush farmland on either side.
The makeshift tip, 30km west of the city, stretches more than 500m before it disappears over the crest of the road.
Some piles stand 10-feet tall made up of a combination of everyday household items, building waste and things you’d never think to find here.
The unmistakable brown and yellow cross-bands of a tiger snake can be spotted moving slowly from a hole beneath a blanket — an ideal habitat given the abundance of rodents drawn to food scraps and debris at the scene.
It is narrowly avoided as it slithers past and back beneath another pile.
Then there are the photographs.
An entire family, including small children, pictured on holidays overseas, at the snow, dining out, drinking on balconies and visiting the Sydney Opera House.
It’s not just physical photographs, of which there are several albums. There are also dozens of reels of negatives discarded with the rest of the unwanted items.
At the end of the road, next to a toppled electricity pole, is a sign that warns visitors: “Stop. Dumping of Rubbish and Unwanted Goods is PROHIBITED”.
It warns of fines up to $9087 and suggests the area “may be under surveillance”. But no cameras were visible when news.com.au visited and the sign is clearly being ignored.
A viral video from the pot-holed road in Truganina, shot earlier this week, exploded online when it was published on various social media pages.
“These were just farms when I was a kid, but now it’s a dumping ground,” the local man says in the video.
“The fact that we let anybody treat our country like this is f***ing shameful.”
The video was removed from Facebook, likely because it contained anti-immigration and racially-charged language.
But the contents of the video — the piles of waste, which sparked outrage from viewers — have been confirmed by news.com.au.
So why is it there? And why has nobody cleaned it up?
Mt Atkinson Road where the dumping takes place falls within the boundary of Melton City Council, but the road itself is not their responsibility.
A council spokesperson told news.com.au council is “aware of illegal rubbish dumping along Mt Atkinson Road in Truganina” and “this section of road is owned by the Victorian Government”.
“We are actively engaged with the Victorian Government’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action on this matter,” the spokesperson said.
“Council shares our residents’ frustration and concerns about illegal rubbish dumping.”
News.com.au understands the council has reached out to the Victorian Government about the illegally dump to explore options for clean-up and maintenance.
The state government says it is cracking down on illegal dumping after “hearing from councils and land managers who are facing an increase in dumping”, Minister for Environment Steve Dimoploulos said.
The government is spending $21.5 million to help ease the burden but importantly catch those responsible, it says.
“To catch more people flouting the law and hold them to account, $13 million will help the Illegal Dumping Taskforce ramp up surveillance, enforcement and clean-up efforts across Victoria,” he said.
The punishment in Victoria for those caught doing the wrong thing is steep. Littering on public land comes with a maximum penalty of $3,951,800 for businesses and $800,000 for individuals or five years imprisonment.
But statewide data on the exact number of illegal dumping fines is not published online.
The problem — which continues to grow — is not exclusive to Melbourne’s west.
News.com.au previously reported that in Hurstbridge, 26km north of the CBD, there were several examples of unwanted household items dumped on the side of the road.
In one pile was a king-sized mattress but locals had taken to it with red spray paint. The message was clear: “Scum did this,” it read.
The problem is getting worse, according to councils around the country.
In Werribee, a 14m drive from Tarneit, footage shared in March this year showed an unofficial rubbish tip had emerged behind large mounds of dirt.
“It’s isolated, surrounded by dirt mounds and out of sight — and that’s exactly why dumpers keep targeting this space,” locally-owned media outlet Wyndham TV reported.
In October last year, footage emerged from a Hindu festival — the Dussehra Mela — held at Mernda Recreation Reserve north of Melbourne that appeared to show two men tossing bags of rubbish into a creek.
Again, the response was anger from the public.
“This kind of behaviour has no place anywhere, and it’s certainly not what our community stands for,” wrote Jas Simpson on Facebook.
“We all need to take care of the environment we share. It’s heartbreaking to see our creeks treated like this, especially when so many of us work hard to protect our wildlife and keep Eden Park beautiful.”
Whittlesea Mayor Martin Taylor said at the time he was “deeply concerned by the number of residents from the Mernda area who have contacted me directly regarding rubbish allegedly left behind following a festival held at Mernda Reserve over a week ago”.
“I want to assure our community that I have acted swiftly on these concerns,” Cr Taylor wrote on Facebook.
“While I have responded to every email and message I have received, I continue to receive further complaints from residents.”
But around the country, many are taking it into their own hands to name and shame those caught doing the wrong thing.
News.com.au spoke to a man in Queensland this week who filmed two women allegedly dumping rubbish on the side of the road.
Earlier this year, Queensland man Joshua Partridge also took it upon himself to intervene in a since-viral video showing his confrontation with a man who had just disposed of his unwanted items from the back of his Honda Accord a stone’s throw from a busy school.
“Australia is not your f***ing dumping ground. Pick your sh*t up, all of it,” he thunders at the man in the video.
For 45 seconds, Mr Partridge films as the alleged dumper returns the items to the boot of the car.
“Good, now take it to the f***ing dump. Otherwise you’re going to the coppers you f***ing idiot.”
Speaking exclusively to news.com.au, Mr Partridge said the incident took place next to Camira State School, southwest of Brisbane.
Dozens of passersby saw what was happening but none intervened, Mr Partridge said.
“He was on a main road and people were driving past, no one stopped. This was during school time traffic,” he told news.com.au.
“He kept saying ‘sorry’ and ‘no English, no English’.”
Mr Partridge’s video was viewed more than 3 million times and received more than 10,000 comments.
He says he didn’t mind that nobody else stopped to confront the man. And he would do it again.
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