3 weeks ago
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February 8, 2026 — 1:30pm
Years of vandalism and reckless driving that have left residents feeling like “the Australian Grand Prix [is] happening outside their house at 2am” have renewed calls for a crackdown at a popular stretch of road in Melbourne’s inner east.
Char Weeks, who lives about 750 metres from the winding Yarra Boulevard, a 6.2-kilometre stretch of Kew road that hugs the Yarra River and crosses over the Eastern Freeway, said she was frequently woken by noisy vehicles and drivers treating the road as their racetrack.
“At 2.30 in the morning I hear screeching tyres, loud braking, accelerating,” Weeks said.
“Firstly, you think someone’s had an accident, then you sort of go, ‘Oh, it’s hoons on the boulevard again’.”
Egon Leopold Seder, who also lives close by, said he calls Triple Zero about the hoons up to five times a week in the warmer months, and officers quickly respond.
“It’s dangerous, it’s intrusive, it’s relentless,” he said.
Footage provided to The Age by a resident shows a car drifting around a corner in a loud convoy in 2025, while another video from 2023 shows cars driving loudly over speed bumps before accelerating.
Seder is also concerned about destruction of road infrastructure including damaged signs and debris left behind, including car parts.
On Wednesday, The Age found two “no standing” signs and another road sign lodged in an embankment above the freeway as well as skid marks across lanes.
Seder said he believes anti-social behaviour and “wanton vandalism” were intended to send a message to residents who are annoyed by the noise.
“We’ve got to make this a hostile environment,” he said.
Hooning and road safety have long been major concerns at the boulevard, where the speed limit is 50km/h, and where three people have been killed since 2014 in crashes where speed was a factor.
The federal government has allocated $7 million to upgrade the state-owned road since 2019. Improvements include raised speed bumps, intersection changes, a second security camera and more lighting, according to a January 2024 Department of Transport and Planning update.
But residents report an unintended consequence of speed bumps is that hooning has intensified in certain spots as drivers loudly accelerate and slow down between them.
Susan Sawyer agreed the “extraordinary” noise became worse after the upgrades.
She said many people were worried about their safety when walking along the footpath, due to speeding cars. She has called for a broader rethink about how the road is used.
“The current approaches aren’t working, something else needs to be done,” she said.
However, resident Cameron Clark said hooning had reduced since he campaigned for action previously, and he believed the speed bumps meant drivers no longer were “gunning” engines like they used to.
“The only sensible solution is to take the fun out of it for them,” he said.
At least 80 infringement notices have been issued to drivers at the boulevard in the past five months, including for speeding, preliminary police data revealed.
A police spokesperson said the force regularly patrolled the area, while a mobile police CCTV camera at the Eastern Freeway overpass monitored hoon behaviour.
City of Boroondara councillor Sophie Torney, who also hears the hooning from her home, said the driving disrupted the community.
She said the council understands that at May 2025, $2 million of the federal funding was yet to be spent, and called for remaining funds to be put towards measures other than speed bumps.
Torney said the council presented authorities with options including part-road closures, high-tech enforcement measures and other traffic-calming options.
“I don’t know what it’ll take for the Department of Transport and Planning to act. Is it going to be another death on this stretch of road? They really need to step up and engage with the community,” she said.
Boroondara Mayor Wes Gault said hundreds of families had been disrupted by the reckless driving. He hopes to work with authorities to make the road safe, so residents could sleep “without the Australian Grand Prix happening outside their house at 2am”.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson, the MP for Kew, said she regularly heard from residents who had endured disrupted sleep and called on the state government to trial noise cameras which are used in NSW.
“In the midst of a crime crisis, it’s not fair or reasonable to expect Boroondara police to maintain a nightly presence at Yarra Boulevard,” she said.
Independent MP Dr Monique Ryan, the federal MP for Kooyong, said all levels of government were well aware of the issue.
“It’s only a matter of time before we see a nasty accident,” she said.
A spokesperson said the Department of Transport and Planning continued to work with the council, police and the community to address concerns.
“Hooning promotes reckless, unsafe driver behaviour and increases the risk of road trauma, not only to the driver but everyone around them,” the spokesperson said.
Victorian Roads Minister Melissa Horne said road safety was a shared responsibility, and rules were in place to keep everyone safe.
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