Maribyrnong council will continue to fight fire with fire in its battle against graffiti around the city.
The council adopted a new graffiti management plan at its recent city development special committee meeting, allocating $180,000 in its draft 2015-16 budget towards preventing and removing graffiti.
The plan includes stricter enforcement of graffiti removal and the launch of a graffiti trailer with clean-up equipment, as well as working more closely with police, neighbouring councils and schools. The council will crack down on graffiti on private property and enforce removal when no action is taken within a week.
It has set a two-hour target for removing publicly visible graffiti that contains racist, obscene or offensive material on council or private property.
The council’s successful StreetWORKS project will remain a centrepiece of the plan.
StreetWORKS engages street artists to create major street art pieces to make graffiti hotspots more engaging and discourage graffiti and tagging.
The most recent work, Journeys of Courage, features a portrait of Malcolm Fraser as part of a mural on the external wall of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre at Footscray.
The artwork, by artists Heesco, Conrad Bizjak, DVATE, Makatron and Duke, is the 11th in a series of 16 StreetWORKS projects.
Maribyrnong mayor Nam Quach said StreetWORKS was an opportunity for artists to show off their work while reducing incidents of graffiti and tagging, and giving residents and visitors public artworks to enjoy.
“StreetWORKS brings together artists, businesses, young people, residents and a range of other groups and individuals from across the community,” the mayor said.
“In addition to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, a number of prominent community organisations will partner with council in the 2015 StreetWORKS project.
“Public art and support for artists is important in healthy, lively communities.”
