Graffiti has been synonymous with skateboard ‘punks’ for as long as I can remember and probably a lot longer before that too. Some see it as skateboarder ‘culture’ or fitting into the urban landscape and I do too, to a certain extent. The problem we seem to have in Melbourne is the number of graffiti artists is overwhelmingly outnumbered by the little dipshits that think they are the hardcore underground with their permanent markers.

I decided that as an experiment I would travel to several Melbourne skate parks and see if I could find any decent art. From what I understand graffiti and tagging are about making a statement, so I was curious to see if this subculture defecated in their own backyards… so to speak.

I went in expecting to find a sea of messy scribbles uselessness but what I found isn’t as stereotypical as you’d think.

Not really knowing much about skateparks in Melbourne apart from the now defunct lot that used to be for skaters in the CBD near latrobe street I think it was, I hit the internet for some sort of directory. Turns out there’s a lot (click parks then Victoria, I couldn’t link the page directly) of skate parks in Melbourne, much more then I was willing to hit in a day so I narrowed my list down to the parks listed on the City of Melbourne website.

I didn’t bother with the Cranbourne one as I doubted there would be anything of interest in an indoor entry-fee presumably privately run skate park. I also hit the skate park in Elwood I remembered as a kid. I wasn’t sure if it was still there but sure enough it was so I added that to my list too. I also refuse to use the term ‘sk8park’ as listed on the City of Melbourne website, cmon Melbourne are freaking thirteen year olds running our city or what? IT’S SKATE PARK.



Kensington Skate Park

skateboard.com.au rating: 4 stars

Kensington Skate Park was first on my list. Riding out to the park as I got closer it jogged my memory that I’d seen it before on the train heading into the western suburbs. I think more then once or twice I’d envied the kids playing on their boards and bmx’es as I looked out of the train on my way to university.








This park wasn’t that bad for graffiti, there was some crap at the top of the ramps but there was also at least two examples of decent art on the sides of the ramps. For my first park I was pleasantly surprised. I think the main reason this park is relatively clean is that there’s actually minimum area to vandalise, there’s no surrounding buildings and the skate park is bang in the middle of a park itself. On a Sunday afternoon this park was deserted except for a man and presumably his son  having some fun on a push scooter.




Ascotvale Skate Park

skateboard.com.au rank: 3 stars

This park wasn’t that far away from Kensington, about a ten minute or so bike ride. Ascotvale Skate Park is situated against a depressing backdrop of housing commission flats. Actually backdrop isn’t the right word, the skate park is bang right in the middle of the flats. Compared to the green park surrounding Kensington, it was no wonder the place was deserted.








Ascotvale Skate Park was more of what I’d imagined skate parks in Melbourne were going to be like, dirty, ugly and a waste of space. Walking around with my camera taking photos I was just waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and bash me for it. There wasn’t a single piece of graffiti that was art worthy, just rubbish scrawled over nearby walls and on the park itself. As if housing commission flats aren’t depressing enough on their own, residents have to put up with this within arms reach outside their windows.

I got the hell out of Ascotvale Skate Park as fast as I could…



Fitzroy Bowl

skateboard.com.au rank: 3 stars

How the hell this park was ranked the same as Ascotvale I have no idea. There must be some secret skater ranking process I’m not privvy too. Fitzroy Bowl is situated in the picturesque Edisnburgh Gardens and was the first park I saw that actually had a piece of art unmolested by the tagging idiots.








There were little kids playing in the smaller bowl being supervised by presumably their parents and two older kids running their bmx’s in the bigger blue bowl. Another group of kids were trying to set something up with a ramp too. This in my opinion is what a skate park should be like. Some feature art but otherwise nice and clean, well used and family friendly.




Junction Skate and BMX Park

skateboard.com.au rank: 4 stars

This park was the easily the busiest of the bunch and from what I could see completely graffiti free! I didn’t get a good look around, I felt like a bit of a douche walking around with the camera with so many people using the facilities. I was just waiting for someone to go ‘hey pedo what’s happenin?’





There was noticeably a fair bit of purple and black paint around, I’m not sure if that was the council removing graffiti or the intended look. Either way I couldn’t see any graffiti which made for a nice change. This park had a lot of riders around but I didn’t see anyone on a skateboard. There were also sun shades for people to relax under which was a nice idea by the council.




Prahran Ramp and Bowl

skateboard.com.au rank: 5 stars

This skate park received a perfect rating but was also one of the ugliest. Having been spoilt by the Junction and Fitzroy bowls seeing crappy tags everywhere again was a bit of a let down.











Despite the heavy scrawling everywhere there wasn’t one piece of artwork to be found. This skate park ruined the atmosphere of the park it was situated in.




Elwood Bowls

skateboarding.com.au rating: 3 stars

The council seems to have all but abandoned cleaning up this skatepark. Shame really as it’s got a prime location in a nice big parkland and really drags down the visual atmosphere of the surrounding land.











The park was deserted and there was nothing but scribble everywhere.

Melbourne’s skate parks proved to be hit and miss when it came to street art vs. mindless visually unappealing tagging. Out of the six parks I visited just two had any signs of actual art with the rest of them either devoid of graffiti or full of scribble. I did find that the Junction did feel a bit stale and think it could have done with some urban artwork to give the place some character.

The problem with a skatepark is it is essentially a giant concrete area which isn’t very appealing in itself. Council’s spend nearly a million dollars on building the parks so you can only wonder why they don’t spend a little bit more and perhaps commission local artists to give them a theme. Maybe they’re worried the commissioned work will just get tagged over; still it’s got to be cheaper annually then whatever portion of $300,000 Rockdale council puts aside for graffiti removal.

You’d think if local vandals were aware that fellow artists had designed the works that maybe they’d leave them alone out of respect but I guess till it’s tried we won’t know. It’s kind of a shame really that tagging is so prevalent in Melbourne, when you look at sites such as Smashing Magazine you can’t help but admire the works they feature. Artwork like that is visually appealing and makes a statement. Some of the pieces have a deeper meaning and some of them are just plain silly but a constant links the works together, an artist has carefully planned and thought out their pieces. Graffiti can be a world wide art phenomena, or it can be ugly tagging crap.

Melbourne Art and Culture critic, Mark Holsworth sums it up nicely;



The white walls around Sutton Gallery in Fitzroy have become covered with graffiti as if this brings the writers closer to art. And now the stairwells of Westspace and Bus artist-run-spaces are becoming covered with tags. Outside Westspace I saw two pairs of shoes hanging from a wire. There are tags on their soles: Drew & Putz. If you sign it does it make it art?


To answer the question posed, no it doesn’t Mark, it gives whatever it was that has been tagged a lesser value, both artistically and in terms of the visual environment.

If I was a local artist I’d be approaching various councils seeking permission to get my work displayed in such prominent locations. As a resident of Melbourne I have to accept that skate parks serve a worthy benefit to their demographic but I can only implore that local artists do something about the mess that plagues so many of these sites.

Hey graffiti artists, Melbourne’s skate parks need you!

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