From July until October 2011, around 4,600 in-ground sensors are being progressively installed in single marked bays across Melbourne’s central city, in Southbank and a portion of West Melbourne.
An in-ground sensor is a device that is buried underground, that records when a vehicle arrives and departs from a parking bay. Once a vehicle has overstayed the permitted time limit, plus the grace period of five minutes, a signal will be sent from the bay’s in-ground sensor to the nearest parking officer’s hand-held device. The parking officer will check to see if a parking offence has occurred before issuing a parking ticket.
Highly visible signs on poles and other helpful information will be displayed in local retail outlets and communicated through local media to make sure people know where sensors are in operation.
Operation commencement dates
| Commencement date |
Area covered |
Streets bounding this area |
| 16 August (stage 1) |
Spring and Exhibition Street |
Spring Street and Exhibition Street between La Trobe Street and Flinders Street. |
| 13 September (stage 2) |
Remainder of the CBD grid |
All remaining streets within the boundary of Flinders Street, Spring Street, La Trobe Street and Spencer Street. |
| 4 October (stage 3) |
CBD north of La Trobe St and West Melbourne |
All streets north of the La Trobe Street and King Street bound to the east of Elizabeth Street by Victoria Street, and extending along Elizabeth Street to Peel Street. Bound on the west by Queensbury and Laurens Streets. |
| 21 October (stage 4) |
Southbank |
All streets within the boundary of Queens Bridge Street, Kings Way, Dorcas Street and St Kilda Road. |
View in-ground sensor implementation map (PDF, 720kb) 
Learn more about in-ground sensor installation.
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