{"id":78591,"date":"2026-08-23T22:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/78591\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T22:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:06:16","slug":"council-wants-reimbursement-for-removing-graffiti-on-state-owned-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/78591\/","title":{"rendered":"Council wants reimbursement for removing graffiti on state-owned property"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Killworth has turned his job into something of an art form, but he says the graffiti he cleans is anything but.<\/p>\n

Within half an hour of receiving a report, the 69-year-old is on site and cleaning stretches of graffiti in Melbourne’s south-east.<\/p>\n

“We’re removing 80 per cent of the graffiti within one day,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s pointless. I mean it’s not even art. It’s vandalism, pure and simple.”<\/p>\n

The City of Casey responded to 7,375 graffiti removal requests last financial year, among the highest in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Nearly one-third of those reports were for vandalism on state-owned assets, like street signs and rail infrastructure along the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

State-owned sites made up nearly one-third of graffiti reports to the City of Casey last year.\u00a0 (ABC News: Costa Haritos)<\/p>\n

Mayor Michelle Crowther said council contractors ended up cleaning many sites that were the state government’s responsibility.<\/p>\n

“Council is funding the removal of graffiti on state assets, and we would like the state government to refund the investment we are making,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’d like them to take responsibility for their assets and act in a timely manner to remove graffiti.”<\/p>\n

The council spent more than $780,000 on graffiti management last financial year.<\/p>\n

The cost of cleaning up<\/p>\n

The ABC asked more than a dozen Melbourne councils about graffiti in their local areas.<\/p>\n

Data showed the City of Melbourne cleaned the most graffiti by area for the 2025-26 financial year.<\/p>\n

In Casey, removal requests have steadily increased over the past five years, which the council said could be explained by increased reporting and community concern.<\/p>\n

“We are committed to providing a clean and welcoming space for our community,” Ms Crowther said.<\/p>\n

The council is one of Melbourne’s largest, extending from Narre Warren in the north to newer suburbs like Botanic Ridge and Devon Meadows in the south.<\/p>\n

It is also one of the fastest-growing regions in Australia. By 2041, the population will rise by more than 54 per cent.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Graffiti removal requests have increased steadily in Casey over the past five years.\u00a0 (ABC News: Costa Haritos)<\/p>\n

Unlike other municipalities, Casey contractors are also tasked with cleaning graffiti from private properties at no cost to owners.<\/p>\n

Ms Crowther knows what it’s like to be targeted. Her own business in Cranbourne was spray-painted several years ago.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know that the council offered free removal at the time,” she said.<\/p>\n

“As a small business owner, we just didn’t have the time or the money to remove it as quickly ourselves.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Michelle Crowther says her council removes graffiti from state government assets. (ABC News: Steve Martin)<\/p>\n

Online reporting platform Snap Send Solve had an 11 per cent increase in the number of graffiti reports across the state last financial year.<\/p>\n

Residents can upload a photo and send reports of graffiti or vandalism, which is then coordinated by local councils.<\/p>\n

“Graffiti continues to be a problem that plagues Melbourne,” chief executive Danny Gorog said.<\/p>\n

The platform does not measure reports by council area, instead it breaks down parts of the state by geography.<\/p>\n

Melbourne’s south-east recorded 10,222 incidents last financial year \u2014 a slight drop of 4 per cent \u2014 but still the second highest in the state.<\/p>\n

“For graffiti, 93 per cent of people who respond \u2026 tell us that the issue was resolved,” Mr Gorog said.<\/p>\n

Casey council said it was willing to clean state-owned sites, if an appropriate funding model was in place.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Casey council workers responded to 7,375 graffiti removal requests last financial year. (ABC News: Steve Martin)<\/p>\n

It has written to the state government to ask for a cost-sharing arrangement.<\/p>\n

Brad Battin is the Liberal MP for Berwick, which sits on the northern tip of the municipality.<\/p>\n

He said local ratepayers should not have to pay to clean up state-owned assets.<\/p>\n

“Graffiti, potholes, overgrown grass and poorly maintained public spaces have become symbols of a state that looks tired, neglected and in desperate need of a fresh start,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Transport and Planning said it regularly removed graffiti from the transport network, including in Casey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Graffiti has no place on our transport infrastructure, and we encourage anyone who witnesses acts of vandalism to report it to Victoria Police,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“Metro Trains invests more than $10 million every year to clean up the network \u2014 removing 249,648 [metres] of graffiti from its infrastructure last financial year.”<\/p>\n

Rapid removal and spaces for creativity<\/p>\n

Casey launched a new push to crack down on vandalism in July, which combined rapid removal, prevention and opportunities for creative expression.<\/p>\n

“One of those ways is targeting our youth with proactive art opportunities to reduce the need for graffiti,” Ms Crowther said.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to be looking at potential places for that across playgrounds and other high-visibility places that we could actually encourage non-offensive graffiti,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Some parts of the city are often targeted twice in one day.\u00a0 (ABC News: Steve Martin)<\/p>\n

For those on the job, it is a race against the clock to clean the unruly sites, which are sometimes targeted twice in the same day.<\/p>\n

Mr Killworth said he was not fazed and issued a spray to those looking to do the wrong thing.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got more paint than you,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Killworth has turned his job into something of an art form, but he says the graffiti he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,29475,119998,10462,10461],"class_list":["post-78591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-brad-battin","tag-city-of-casey","tag-graffiti","tag-vandalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}