Dog sign mystery at Point Park

By Sunny Liu

An unauthorised City of Melbourne dog off-leash sign at Point Park in Yarra’s Edge has made residents easy prey for council fines for letting their pooches off leash.

A sign erected at the edge of Point Park in 2013 shows a City of Melbourne’s official logo and reads “dogs off-leash”, but the council said it was unauthorised.

Yarra’s Edge residents John and Amanda Thatcher said they bought their retirement property here in 2013 largely because the building and nearby park were dog friendly.

He said when he moved in, dogs were roaming free at Point Park so it was unexpected when he was fined twice for letting his two dogs off-leash.

However, the City of Melbourne says Point Park has never been a dog off-leash area and the council removed the unauthorised sign around June 2013 and put up an educative sign informing park users the park was dog on-leash only.

A permanent sign was installed later “to make it abundantly clear to park users that dogs must be kept on-leash in Point Park”, a council spokesperson said.

Mr Thatcher said the council should have conducted more thorough community consultation about the change and should have notified the police upon discovery of a fake sign.

Mr Thatcher has refused to pay the $135 fine for each dog let off the lead and has elected to have the matter dealt at court.

“It’s been very annoying and very stressful. When we bought the apartment from developer Mirvac, it was advertised as dog friendly. But now it’s dog on-leash, it has become less liveable,” Mr Thatcher said.

“There are a lot of dogs living in Yarra’s Edge and everyone is upset about the situation.”

“We are encouraged not to use cars. But we are not within walking distance to a dog park,” he said.

Mr Thatcher said he had been writing letters to the City of Melbourne and joining petitions to call for the council to “return” the park to dog off-leash.

“All we are asking for is maybe make the park dog off-leash at certain hours of the day and displaying a map showing where the dogs can be off-leash. It should be a park for everyone and it’s a great social space for neighbours to meet over their dogs and it shouldn’t be taken away,” he said.

A City of Melbourne spokesperson said: “Point Park is not, and has never been, an off-leash park. The City of Melbourne does not know who erected a dog off-leash sign in Point Park but it certainly wasn’t the City of Melbourne.”

“Notably, the sign was not even a copy of City of Melbourne signage and the dog that was shown on the sign was actually on-leash.”

Yarra’s Edge’s developer Mirvac told Docklands News it did not erect the unauthorised dog off-leash sign.

So the question now is, if not the council or the developer, who put the off-leash sign up?