23 hours ago
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Wollongong City Council, located an hour and a half south of Sydney, will throw away its chalk in lieu of new surveillance cars with cameras that capture your number plates.
“Wollongong City Council is embarking on a 12-month trial of new camera technology that will allow compliance officers to electronically monitor timed parking zones and ensure fair public access to parking hotspots around the city,” Wollongong City Council wrote in a recent press release.
The technology means that it will now be faster and less time-consuming for rangers to give you a fine, making it more challenging to get away with overstaying your parking in the beach city, especially in hotspot areas.
While the old tyre-chalking method meant you could risk overstaying your parking by checking your tyres every so often, number plate recognition means that the surveillance car will simply need to cruise by, and it’ll automatically pick up your number plate.
“The electronic monitoring system captures license plate data via in-vehicle cameras, allowing officers to patrol timed areas more widely and efficiently than the current manual practice of chalking tyres.”
The technology is not new, being adopted by some council areas such as the Sydney CBD, Sutherland Shire, Bayside Council, Hills Shire, Noosa Shire and the Sunshine Coast.
The Lord Mayor of Wollongong Council, Tania Brown, has cited complaints from residents as the reason for the usage of surveillance cars for a 12-month trial to enforce parking.
“We’ve heard from many residents and business owners in our community that people overstaying in timed parking zones is a major source of frustration, particularly in the locations where we’ll be trialling the technology,” said Brown.
“While it is just a trial at this stage, if it can provide more consistent and efficient monitoring of parking zones, and allow our staff to do their jobs safely and effectively, it’s certainly something we should be looking at.”
Putting the mind of extended parkers at ease a little, rangers will still need to put a physical fine on your windshield after the New South Wales Government instituted a new law requiring local councils to provide an on-the-spot ticket and a photo of the offence when issuing a parking fine, doing away with the 'ticketless' approach that saw many drivers receiving a nasty surprise in the mail.
The bill that was implemented in 2024 reversed the 2020 law that allowed rangers to sit back and issue fines through the mail, making it difficult for fined drivers to gather intel to defend themselves in court because they would only find out weeks later that they had been fined.
Still, those tempted to overstay their parking will need to be on high alert as these systems are becoming more common.
Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.
