On Monday, the encampment will have occupied the site for ten months, having returned on 16 April 2025.
Last week, Parks Victoria confirmed that there are “no plans in place for Parks Victoria to move the individuals on before the Grand Prix.”
In a statement to TWiSK, Mayor Alex Makin also said Parks Victoria and the City of Port Phillip are collaborating through coordinated outreach, shared planning and joint responses with homelessness services to support people camping near Junction Oval to leave the area safely.
He said Council’s contribution involves staff time from its existing homelessness coordination, Safety & Amenity, and outreach‑partner liaison roles, with no additional specific costs reported, while Parks Victoria is managing on‑site activities such as providing water and ad hoc waste removal.
The Mayor confirmed that a number of individuals sleeping rough at this location are on the Port Phillip Zero By‑Name List, where they have been identified and engaged by outreach services. The list includes every person known to be sleeping rough anywhere in Port Phillip, regardless of whether the land is Council or Crown land.
Ten months and counting …
Sleeping rough with no facilities in all weather conditions is no “walk in the park.” This is clearly a social problem rather than an individual fault. Providing water and removing rubbish is both compassionate and reasonable — the alternative would be a sanitation nightmare.
But how has this been allowed to continue for nearly a year?
Despite observations that the tent cluster is expanding and gradually claiming more of the park, it is likely that only a handful of individuals are on site on any given night. The work of the Port Phillip Zero By‑Name List should make this clear to authorities.
How is it that a State Government capable of funding a multimillion‑dollar extravaganza like the Grand Prix every year cannot find the resources to appropriately relocate a handful of people sleeping rough after ten months?
And when the situation is eventually resolved, what will Parks Victoria do to prevent a repeat occurrence?
TWiSK will keep following this story.
