From Monday 22 February, our parking officers will resume enforcing parking restrictions in green and red-signed spaces across the municipality. This means you need to pay for parking as well as obey the time restrictions shown on the sign.
It is illegal for anyone to park unsafely. This includes parking in a space for people with a disability without a permit, blocking driveways, footpaths, clearways or bike lanes, unauthorised vehicles parked in loading, bus and taxi zones, and vehicles parked in areas denoted by red signs including no stopping or no standing zones.
‘Motorcycle only’ parking areas are still in effect, and infringements will be issued to non-motorcycles parked in these areas.
Find more information about the parking rules that apply in Victoria.
Yes, you must pay for parking using either the parking meters/machines or PayStay as well as abide by the time limit shown on the parking sign.
It is important drivers do not overstay the time limit indicated on the parking sign to avoid receiving an infringement notice.
If you believe you got a fine when you shouldn’t have you can request an infringement review or call us on 9658 9658 for more information.
We are conducting a review of infringement notices issued relating to the PayStay system where confusion between the number zero and the letter O, and the number one and the letter I on number plates may have occurred.
We know that some drivers have accidentally entered the wrong registration number – putting a number instead of a letter or vice versa. This has led to some instances where people have paid for parking but it has not been recognised by the system because the registration details entered were incorrect.
We are reviewing decisions where an internal review was rejected relating to these registration errors between 1 July 2017 to 1 July 2018 and 1 November 2018 to 30 October 2019.
We estimate that up to 450 drivers are affected and we will contact them to arrange a full refund.
If you believe that you have been impacted by this issue, but are not contacted by one of our team in the next few weeks, please call us on 9658 9658 or complete an infringement review request.
We are reviewing decisions where an internal review was rejected relating to these registration errors between 1 July 2017 to 1 July 2018 and 1 November 2018 to 30 October 2019.
We have already started the review process. It doesn’t apply to all infringement notices issued during the specified period, just to those where confusion on zero/O or one/I on number plates may have occurred.
We estimate up to 450 drivers have been impacted.
We have started contacting customers to arrange their refund, and will continue to do so for the next few weeks.
If you believe that you have been impacted by this issue, and have not been contacted by one of our team by Friday 18 December 2020, please complete an infringement review request request or call us on 9658 9658.
Parking restrictions are in operation to encourage a regular turnover of parking bays, giving residents, workers, businesses and visitors a reasonable chance of finding parking. These restrictions are regularly enforced to ensure the safe and fair use of on-street parking in the municipality.
Without regular patrols the limited number of parking spaces would be occupied continuously by the same vehicles, reducing the amount of parking for others.
In the central city the rate for short-term on-street parking is $7 per hour. Half hour parking is $3.50. The table summarises on-street parking rates which are shown on parking meters and ticket machines.
Please note: half-hour fees in the central city are $3.50 and $2 outside the central city.
There are various payment methods available to drivers, including credit card, coins and cashless parking with PayStay.
Some parking machines provide credit card facilities as an additional option to coins.
It’s a good idea to have coins handy at all times, even if you wish to pay using your credit card. In the absence of a credit card payment option, drivers still have an obligation to pay for parking where alternative forms of payment remain. All parking machines accept coins.
PayStay (pay-by-phone parking) allows drivers to pay for on-street parking using their credit card and a mobile phone. The PayStay system is available throughout the municipality.
Read more about pay-by-phone parking.
If using PayStay, remember to check that you have a valid session (for the correct zone and vehicle registration) before leaving your vehicle unattended. If you have difficulty operating the PayStay system, you should pay for your parking time using alternative forms of payment (coins or credit card).
The City of Melbourne owns two off-street car parks at Council House in the central city and Elgin Street in Carlton, which offer competitive parking rates.
Find more commercial car parks operating within the City of Melbourne.
The time you can legally occupy a parking bay is shown on the parking sign and starts as soon as your car stops in the bay. For example, you may park for no longer than one hour in a 1P signed area. This requirement applies in all Australian states.
Your parking time starts as soon as your car stops in the bay, whether or not you remain in the vehicle (for example, if you choose to finish a phone call before paying for parking and leaving your car). Your parking time does not start when you pay the parking fee.
Your parking time does not start or re-start when you buy a parking ticket or pay a parking meter. If your parking time has run out or is about to run out, you need to move your car to a new bay.
No grace period is provided for in the Road Safety Road Rules 2017. According to the Road Rules, vehicles are considered to be illegally parked as soon as the maximum permitted parking time has been exceeded, or as soon as a vehicle is found parked at an expired meter.
In the City of Melbourne, drivers are provided with five minutes grace after the maximum permitted parking time has been exceeded. This allows you time to return to your car and avoid incurring a fine. This is the only instance in which a grace period is applied.
Any grace period that is applied is a City of Melbourne practice, is not specified in the Road Rules and is strictly limited to five minutes.
If the maximum permitted time is purchased (for example, you pay for two hours parking in a 2P signed area), five minutes grace is added to the purchased time to allow for these activities.
If you instead elect to pay for less than the maximum permitted time (for example, you choose to pay for only one hour in a 2P signed area), it is your responsibility to conclude your parking activities within the time you have chosen to pay for. Five minutes grace will not be added in this scenario.
Availability of other parking spaces nearby does not alter the application of the Road Rules. Once the maximum permitted parking time shown on the parking sign has elapsed, you must move your car to another parking area. Drivers who park their car for longer than indicated on the parking sign may receive a parking fine.
Note: Moving your vehicle forwards or backwards within the same parking area does not satisfy this requirement under the Road Rules.
Eligible vehicles may park in a loading zone for up to 30 minutes, unless otherwise signed.
Find more information about which vehicles are allowed to park in a loading zone.
After parking your car, check the applicable signs and locate the designated parking meter for the area. Follow the instructions on the meter to pay for the parking time you wish to use. The onus is on you the driver to make payment for parking as soon as you park your car.
Some meter parking areas use multi-bay meters, where a single electronic parking meter services a number of parking bays. In these areas, check for the number painted on the parking bay or kerb alongside the parking bay where your car is parked and follow the arrow to the designated multi-bay meter. Follow instructions on the meter to pay for the bay in which your car is parked.
Payment is only valid if made at the designated parking meter and for the correct bay number in which your car is parked.
You cannot insert more money into a parking meter or purchase another ticket to stay longer than the time permitted by the parking sign.
Once you have parked and paid for the maximum permitted time as shown on the parking sign, you must move your vehicle to another parking area.
If you did not initially pay for the maximum permitted time (for example, you paid for only one hour in a 2P signed area), you may add coins to the meter or place your new ticket beside the original ticket on your dashboard up to the maximum time shown on the sign (for example, you can pay for the remaining one hour allowed in the 2P area).
It is your responsibility to be parked for no longer than the time permitted by the parking sign.
Most parking areas in the City of Melbourne are governed by a number of parking restrictions, which are communicated on the parking sign.
Different restrictions apply at particular times of the day or on different days of the week to maximise the number of parking spaces available during various periods (for example, during peak hour).
Parking signs showing different restrictions on Monday to Saturday and on Sunday.
Due to the various restrictions which appear on parking signs, meters cannot be programmed to reject payment once the maximum parking time indicated on the sign has lapsed at particular times of the day, or on different days of the week.
You are required to read the relevant parking signs and insert only the required payment into a meter.
Read more about parking signs and hours.
After parking your car, check the applicable signs and locate the designated ticket machine for the area. Follow the instructions on the machine to purchase a ticket, and display the ticket face up on your dashboard.
The onus is on you as the driver to purchase and display a parking ticket as soon as you park your car.
A ticket is not valid unless displayed face up on the dashboard, with the expiry time and all other inscriptions visible to a parking officer from outside of the car. Check this before leaving your car.
If a parking ticket is not displayed properly (for example, it is displayed face down or has slipped off the dashboard), parking officers are unable to determine whether the vehicle is legally parked. Any car parked in a ticketed area without correctly displaying a parking ticket is liable to receive a parking fine.
Sending the City of Melbourne a copy of your parking ticket after receiving a parking fine does not fulfil the conditions of parking in a ticketed area.
A parking sensor is a small electronic device that is installed underneath a parking bay to detect and record the time a car arrives and departs from a parking bay.
Sensors were installed in approximately 4600 parking bays in the central and inner city areas between August 2011 and May 2012.
Sensors offer a more consistent and accurate approach to parking management by encouraging drivers to comply with parking restrictions.
This supports the steady turnover of parking spaces and helps to make on-street parking more readily available for shoppers, visitors and residents. It also ensures the limited supply of on-street parking is managed in a fair and equitable manner for the large number of vehicles in the city each day.
City of Melbourne ran a communications campaign around the time the sensors were installed to inform residents, business owners and visitors.
There are ongoing measures in place to enhance awareness among motorists, including brightly coloured ‘Your parking time starts as soon as your car stops in the bay’ flyers attached to parking signage, meters and ticket machines around the municipality.
Reserved parking is especially useful for:
Please note, if you require parking bays over multiple city blocks (known as ‘street segments’) you will need to submit a separate application for each city block.
Reserved parking cannot be booked in:
The online application form lists all possible street segments (city blocks) that can be reserved in the City of Melbourne.
You also have the option of listing nearby landmarks to indicate the parking location. This could be in the form of nearby parking meters, building addresses or obvious landmarks.
When a parking officer issues an infringement notice, they do so in good faith and on the basis of the information and evidence that’s immediately available.
If illegal or unsafe parking has occurred and a customer is either in their car or returning to their car before the officer has printed an infringement notice, the officer is able to cancel the process.
However, once a parking infringement notice has been printed, it cannot be voided by the officer.
If a person believes they wrongly received an infringement and that they had not parked illegally or unsafely, then by law they are entitled to one internal review which the registered owner of the vehicle, or the nominated driver, must request.
As a local government body which must operate fairly, consistently and transparently, this process means that infringements go through an auditable, legal process.
Our parking officers use a range of ways to determine how long a vehicle has been parked. This includes visual observation and tyre markings, as well as data from in-ground sensors, which automatically record when a car arrives and exits.
A parking officer will take notes and may take photographs to accompany the infringement notice, which will be used as part of internal reviews of infringements.
Even though no one enjoys getting a parking infringement, our parking officers generally report friendly and positive interactions from drivers and the general public. Most people appreciate that enforcement encourages the smooth flow of traffic and that parking officers are simply doing their job.
However, it’s not uncommon for drivers to become upset about getting an infringement. Occasionally this results in verbal or physical abuse towards the parking officer.
City of Melbourne takes these matters very seriously. No one should ever feel unsafe or threatened in their workplace, and it’s important to remember that the streets are a parking officer’s workplace.
It does not matter if the driver feels justified in their reaction, the City of Melbourne will document these incidents and reports them to Victoria Police for investigation.
No. If you arrive in the city after 8.30pm and park in an on-street metered space, you do not have to pay to park.
The most important thing is that you read the signs carefully.
There are a range of meters and parking spaces in the central city, to ensure better access for all motorists in the city. The new night time parking fee generally allows you to park from 6.30pm to 8.30pm and remain legally parked for the rest of the night.
Always check the parking signs.
If you are parking in the central city in a 1P, 2P or longer term on-street car space, you are able to pay your meter from 6.30pm to 8.30pm and stay for the rest of the night. You do not need to return to your meter if you have paid the full applicable fee to stay until that time.
For the 2020-21 financial year, fines range from $83 to $165 depending on the offence.
If you believe there is a good reason for you not to pay a parking fine, you may request a review of your infringement notice.
When undertaking reviews of parking fines, the City of Melbourne takes into account all of the available information, including:
The following grounds are not considered valid reasons for the withdrawal of a parking fine:
No one likes to get a parking fine. Some common parking mistakes that could lead to receiving a fine are:
You may need a PEA if unauthorised vehicles are preventing owners, tenants, staff or customers from being able to park on a privately owned road or road-related area.
Once a PEA is in place, parking officers will attend the area as part of a regular patrol or on request, and will encourage compliance with parking rules and regulations.
The City of Melbourne. Any motorist who parks illegally in the City of Melbourne is at risk of being fined.
A road or area will not be eligible if it:
Contact the Compliance Administration team at City of Melbourne on 9658 9658 to be sent an application pack.
Application fee
There is a fee of $568.18 plus GST (or $625 GST inclusive), payable if your application is accepted. This includes processing of your application, evaluation of the parking plans, site inspections, other administration costs and maintaining the agreement for one year.
Annual fee
PEAs cost $568.18 plus GST (or $625 GST inclusive), per year. This fee is payable within 30 days of receiving the renewal notice, and covers ongoing administration costs involved in maintaining the agreement for one year.
Yes, further costs may be involved in meeting the following requirements:
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