The Williamstown lessee of a fishing shed on Kororoit Creek has called on Hobsons Bay council to stop people using his land for rubbish dumping, drug taking and even filming pornography.
Gary Davison, one of several shed holders in the Kororoit Creek Fishing Village on Gray Reserve Road, said “nefarious” people accessed the area via adjacent council land.
He is asking the council to erect a gate or bollards on its land to stop vehicle access to the river by “riff-raff and bogans”.
“Just of late, the last couple of years, people seem to have discovered that in one particular area they can drive a vehicle right to the water’s edge,” Mr Davison said. “A lot of people are bird watchers or something quite good, but there’s a lot of nefarious people.
“Some years ago, there was a thing in the paper and it said people were making pornographic films on Melbourne trains, and they said, here’s the link.
“For whatever reason, I looked at that link and there’s a lot of thumbnails [small photos] and I went: ‘That one looks like my shed!’ And indeed it was.”
Mr Davison said he had seen evidence of binge drinking and drug taking, including bongs and bottles left behind.
“A car pulled up with four guys inside and smoke pouring out of the car, and rubbish like that,” he said.
“But also, other things dumped – bags of offal, drums of waste oil, household waste, garden waste, general waste.”
Mr Davison said half a car was dumped in the creek last week.
He did not believe a gate or bollards would stop right-minded people walking in the area.
“What you’re stopping is the riff-raff and bogans of the world,” Mr Davison said. “I mean, who in their right mind would dump half a car in the creek?”
Council hotspot
Hobsons Bay mayor Peter Hemphill said the fishing village was on the council’s ‘hotspots’ list, and would be inspected and cleaned daily.
The council has reported concerns about illicit activities to police and asked Melbourne Water to remove the dumped car.