Melbourne Stencil Festival

The law and art

Many people have been asking about the new laws regarding street art and graffiti. We have decided to compile the relevant information and links to help you interpret them for yourself (with some commentary to help us all understand them a little better :)

The Graffiti Prevention Act (2007) recognises graffiti as a crime.

The full force of the law, including new restrictions on the sale of spray paint cans to people under 18 years of age (minors), came into effect on June 30 2008. 

Youthlaw, based in King Street, Melbourne have posted a fact sheet that explains the basics of this new law, and your rights, in simple terms. 

 Information about the law, and the public debate that lead up to it, is available online.

Call out for

The Victorian Government has posted information to the Department of Justice website that includes links to the actual legislation and to mp3 files promoting the Government line.

For anyone who cares, the anti-graffiti ball technically started rolling with a document called 'Grappling with Graffiti: a Graffiti Management Strategy for Victoria'. While the strategy is no longer available online,the government press release is. The strategy was adopted as official state policy in 2003. Many cities (municipalities) have since developed their own Graffiti Management Strategies. These are usually available to read online. Examples of such strategies are linked below:

City of Yarra

City of Melbourne 

City of Casey
 

Questions or queries?

Want more information?

Please email us at: info@stencilfestival.com