By Taylah Eastwell
A new police operation set up to target hoon driving across the Yarra Ranges has been welcomed by members of the local community.
Operation Deliver is a police taskforce targeting hoon driving, banned drivers, as well as drink and drug driving across the Yarra Ranges police service area.
Target locations include Mt Dandenong Tourist Road, Ridge Road and Mountain Highway, as well as Yarra Valley hotspots including Warburton and Mt Donna Buang.
The operation comes as a welcome relief for residents across Mt Dandenong, with many all too familiar with the sounds of tyres popping, burnouts and bottles smashing during hoon meet-ups on the mountain.
Fed up with being kept awake at night, residents across the Dandenongs recently joined forces over private Facebook group, ‘Stop the Hoon in the Hills’, where hoon sightings are reported and action plans are discussed.
Group creator Beth Robinson said the operation “shows that the things hills residents have been doing as a community have paid off”, with residents working in partnership with local police and councillors in order to combat the issue.
Ms Robinson, who resides in Sassafras, said hooning has always been an issue in the hills and significantly increased after the first lockdown, but said she has noticed a change over the last week.
“I’ve personally noticed it’s changed of a night time. There aren’t as many hoons. It’s like they’ve changed their times and are coming earlier in the day, which doesn’t interrupt our sleep like it was,” Ms Robinson said.
Ms Robinson said she has personally made “20 to 30” reports to triple zero since October last year.
“I used to leave it thinking they’d go away, but if you don’t, they stay up here for hours,” she said.
According to Ms Robinson, a number of suggestions have been made to council, including camera’s in carparks, gates closing carparks after a certain time, CCTV and a higher police presence.
“If it was just them driving past it wouldn’t be so bad, but they do burnouts in carparks right outside my house. You can hear them breaking bottles and swearing. I talked to police about camera’s and didn’t realise how impossible that was with people’s rights with being filmed, costs, who’s going to manage it, our best option is to just report it to police,” she said.
“I never used to close the gates on my property but I always do now. It doesn’t make you feel very safe or secure. I drive buses full of people and I don’t get enough sleep. Some days I have to call in and say I can’t come in, I didn’t get enough sleep,” she said.
“I feel sorry for people moving to the area thinking it’s such a beautiful tranquil place, I’ve lived on Burwood Highway and this is worse.
Having already noticed a difference, Ms Robinson is “hopeful” that the police presence will continue to have an effect.
Senior Constable Ross Mitchell from Belgrave Police said “the issue of hoon driving is as old as the mountain”.
According to Mr Mitchell, police had already begun putting pressure on traffic authorities for speed cameras to be placed in the area prior to the community Facebook group being created.
“When restrictions first lifted and people came back onto the mountain there was quite a bit of hoon driving. We had one public meeting and six weeks later held another. These meetings revolved around hoons in Kalorama and Ridge Rd,” he said.
Mr Mitchell said police and council are definitely listening when it comes to tackling hoon behaviours.
“There are traffic management unit operations in place. Speed cameras are booked to work in the area. Council are looking at speed humps on some streets and local police are doing more patrols,” he said.
Streeton Ward councillor Cathrine Burnett-Wake and O’Shannassy Ward Councillor Jim Child raised the issue of hoons in their wards during council’s meeting on 24 November.
A motion was passed indicating council would write to the Minister for Roads and the Minister for Police and Emergency Services to address hooning and antisocial behaviour across the Yarra Ranges.
“I am thrilled that the community concerns have been listened to, and that Operation Deliver is now in action and will be targeting hot spot areas along the ridge. I know the news of Operation Deliver has come as welcome relief to residents too. They are sick and tired of the constant, nightly hooning that occurs. The residents and I are optimistic that Operation Deliver will indeed ‘deliver’ in curbing the hooning and antisocial behaviour,” Cr Burnett-Wake said.
O’Shannassy Ward councillor Jim Child said he was pleased to be making some headway and to have Victoria Police up there addressing the problem.
“We’ve had a steering committee in place with Victoria Police, Parks Victoria and council officers which was the motivation in bringing this issue up to council. We got to the stage where as agencies and the community we couldn’t do anymore, so it was good to write to the Minister and get the response we’ve had,” he said.
Member for Eildon, Cindy McLeish believes other agencies still need to get on board.
“With police forces being stretched so thinly, I’m pleased to see there is now a greater level of support and that the police are taking this issue seriously. While this is great from a law enforcement point of view, we need other agencies including Parks Victoria and Regional Roads Victoria to do their part,” Ms McLeish said.
