By Callum Ludwig
In recent years, a number of incidents have occurred in and near the town centres of the Upper Yarra impacting businesses and community facilities.
Active and operational CCTV could have played an important role in identifying offenders or helping uncover what happened but cameras pledged and installed have been shut off.
One of the most costly criminal incidents to hit the Upper Yarra community in recent years was the damage done to the Seville War Memorial in September 2023.
It took until February 2025 for the memorial to be restored to its former glory, requiring government and community bank grants to remove the damaged panels and recreate and install replacements.
President of the Seville Township Group Graeme Black said in March 2024 that they hoped to increase the security of the memorial when it was restored.
“We’re imminently expecting CCTV cameras which will capture this area and then along the highway, these have all been passed and funded by the Federal Government and so we expect that to happen fairly soon,” he said.
Another major incident in Seville was the firebombing of the tobacconist in February 2024 which not only destroyed the shopfront but damaged the nearby dentist and Branded Burgers and Bar restaurant.
An individual was later arrested, interviewed and released pending further enquiries in relation to the incident, which was linked to cross-border illicit tobacco trafficking conducted by an organised crime group.
In Wandin North, a police investigation into an alleged armed robbery of a business in the shopping precinct took several months and required multiple digital images to be developed to release to the public.
The incident occurred on 4 September 2024 and police released their first digital image, believed to be of a 60 per cent likeness to the offender and depicting a blue-eyed man in a hoodie and with his mouth covered, at the start of December. The following week, a further digital image of ‘excellent’ likeness was released with the man now uncovered with medium-length blonde hair and a long beard. An arrest was made on 17 December after police executed a search warrant at a Monbulk address.
Another incident in the Wandin North business precinct in June 2024 caused thousands of dollars of damage.
CCTV in the TerryWhite Chemmart in Wandin North captured two individuals attempting to break in with a sledgehammer or other large tool just before 4am on Sunday 2 June, heading straight to the dispensary once inside before resorting to stealing some stock, believed to have fled in the direction of Lilydale having come from Seville.
Owner of the TerryWhite Chemmart Nabih Barsoum said at the time he thought some upgrades to security on the strip of shops could help.
“If we had more cameras in that strip, we could capture them from all different directions, which would help identify them more, we need fixed cameras, not just by the shop owners, because you cannot force them to do it,” he said.
“More light as well, I’ve got my own light out the front of the pharmacy but everywhere else is so dark as well,”
“We need to come up with a plan for the whole strip because it’s attractive for criminals and they will keep coming back.”
In September 2024, Yarra Junction man Jason Wong was killed following a potential road rage incident. Witnesses said Mr Wong was being tailgated by a driver in a green Holden Commodore on the Warburton Highway before both drivers came to a stop near the intersection with Elvian Road, just down from the Woori Yallock township. Mr Wong stopped to assess some damage to his vehicle, potentially from the other driver hitting his car, while the other driver drove off. Mr Wong’s vehicle then rolled back into a ditch, pinning him underneath and he later died at the scene. Police called for the driver of the other vehicle to come forward.
In Yarra Junction, a couple of violent incidents in the township in recent years could have been caught on CCTV.
In April 2022, a 15-year-old boy was charged after glassing a 16-year-old victim with a broken glass bottle on the corner of Hoddle Street and Warburton Highway.
Just up the road in July 2023, police investigated an assault in the vicinity of a supermarket in Yarra Junction, likely the Woolworths, where a male and female were involved in an altercation.
Back on the roads, a number of hoon incidents in March 2022 in the Upper Yarra prompted a crackdown from police where they sought to find multiple offenders who encouraged and competed with each other throughout the region.
This wasn’t the first time hoon drivers hit the Upper Yarra either, with the Wesburn-Millgrove Fire Station left with skid marks in August 2021 after a driver did burnouts out the front. This incident was caught on CCTV footage of the scene, though the black and white footage and the bright headlights of the vehicle made gathering evidence from it tricky.
Millgrove facilities were also targeted by vandals twice in as many weeks in January-February 2023, damaging the River Valley Church van and ripping out a fence gate and smashing a lock at the Millgrove Preschool.
An alleged arsonist from McMahon’s Creek who struck late at night in the Upper Yarra in August 2024 before handing themselves in in Wangaratta the next day could have been caught on CCTV when travelling the Warburton Highway between Don Valley, Warburton and McMahons Creek where he struck.
There have been a number of incidents in Warburton in recent years where CCTV could have helped in investigations.
Police arrested a 23-year-old Warburton man at a venue on the Warburton Highway in Warburton in August 2022 following a stabbing that resulted in another man being airlifted to hospital. Investigations were ongoing the following day while police continued to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
Glenn Usher-Clarke tragically murdered Warburton man Martin Sheahan in his home in January 2022 before fleeing the scene to take his own life in the toilets at Wesburn Park while emergency services attended the Sheahan household. While it was not necessary in the end, CCTV could have captured Usher-Clarke as he fled the scene if he continued to try to escape.
Police released a digital image of man of an alleged pervert in Warburton who exposed himself to a 17-year-old girl by the Yarra River near the Redwood Centre before leaving the scene.
CCTV footage was used in the investigation of a suspicious fire in the old IGA building in Warburton in June 2022 where a male and female were caught on camera near the scene close to the time of the fire overnight. Further CCTV footage could have helped capture their movements around the time of the blaze.
Warburton Police asked the public for assistance to help catch vandals who ‘egged’ and defaced the shopfront of the Charlie Horse Vintage Clothing store in Warburton overnight between 31 October and 1 November 2024.
