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Night after night, motorcyclists and hoon drivers gather beneath a Port Melbourne apartment, revving their engines into the early hours of the morning.
After months of sleepless nights, John Wickham finally had enough. One warm summer night, when the first drums of a motorcycle engine started, Wickham did as a local MP had suggested – he went downstairs to confront them.
Moments later, Wickham was punched in the face with so much force his front tooth still wobbles months later.
The man allegedly responsible has since been banned from the area before the case goes to court but every week, his friends return.
Wickham and wife Tammy Lindrum aren’t the only ones who say they’re increasingly scared to leave their home at night and feel trapped by the noise.
“It’s often 2.30 in the morning when you’re woken up by the sounds of cars revving,” Lindrum says.
“We’ve got neighbours who moved because of it, because of the impact of the sound. New neighbours moved in only a few months ago, and they’re already sick of it.”
Nearby, Marion Sitter has lived in one of the residential towers on the waterside for five years, and says the piercing sound of revving engines often ruins what should be tranquillity by the bay. The problem is so pronounced that when The Age photographed Sitter and fellow resident Heather Brown one recent afternoon, a hoon motorcyclist sped behind them unexpectedly.
A group of Port Melbourne residents has formed an alliance to discuss a way forward without the sound.
Brown says the worst thing about the persistent noise is the powerlessness she feels each night.
“You feel like there’s absolutely no control, and you know this is illegal activity, but there’s nothing you can do about it. [Hoons] are very aware of what the police are doing and when they’re coming,” she says.
Residents say they’ve lost count of how many times they’ve called the police to respond to a group of hoons outside their walls. “We call the police, and they tell us to keep calling when we hear it or see it, but we know there’s much more serious crime they’re dealing with. We all grew up being taught calling them was only for emergencies,” Lindrum says.
Videos and photos seen by The Age show the terrifying moments cars speed along usually quiet Port Melbourne streets, their tyres screeching through all hours of the night. The videos and photos show groups of motorcyclists riding on footpaths and parking in groups along the foreshore.
Tim Norman, president of the Beacon Cove Neighbourhood Association, has a long list of everything the group has done recently to combat hoon driving in the area: petitions, meetings with Port Phillip Council, meetings with state and federal MPs and conversations with police, to name a few.
Social media events for car meets are published online regularly, with hundreds responding to meeting invitations on weekends. Although the group rules for events remain the same – no hooning, no littering, no drugs or alcohol and no “excessive” revving – there are always drivers who ignore them.
Residents agree that for the most part, car meets are filled with people who just want to admire unique cars, but it’s the hoons who join at the end of the meets that residents are most concerned about.
“Most people are just there because they really love their cars, and they like a comrade, and there’s clearly a community there,” resident Luke Simpkin says.
“We live here because it’s lovely. It’s all public space, and we don’t have a problem with that. It’s about how that later irresponsible behaviour affects us, and the ear-splitting noise out of the blue … it just really startles you.”
In April, then-environment minister Steve Dimopoulos announced a $1.3 million trial of roadside acoustic cameras that can detect excessive noise from vehicles and photograph their number plates. While this is a step in the right direction, residents say, the vague commitment does little to ease their concerns.
A police spokeswoman said officers were in regular discussions with the council and EPA, and supported the installation of the cameras.
“Road policing in and around Port Melbourne is a priority for local police, and as part of daily taskings, officers patrol known hoon hotspots both day and night,” the spokeswoman said.
When asked about how many reports relating to hoon behaviour had been made to police in the past year, the spokeswoman said all calls were triaged depending on their severity.
An EPA spokesman said the camera trial was “on track to begin on-road trials in coming months”, but he could not confirm exactly when or where they’d be installed.
“EPA Victoria is consulting with Victoria Police as well as councils about potential locations for the seven cameras over the two-year trial period,” he said.
In 2020-21, the EPA received 5405 noise reports across Victoria, and that number has nearly doubled to 9100 in the past year.
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