{"id":704280,"date":"2026-05-30T12:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T12:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/704280\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T12:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T12:40:16","slug":"hobart-drivers-locked-behind-boom-gate-asked-to-pay-70-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/704280\/","title":{"rendered":"Hobart drivers locked behind boom gate, asked to pay $70 cash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drivers in Hobart turned up to collect their cars from a well-known city car park on Friday morning, only to find them locked behind a boom gate and a request to pay $70 in cash to retrieve their car.<\/p>\n

The former Swisherr car park at the old K&D Warehouse site was suddenly shut down, trapping vehicles inside and a sign on the gate telling drivers the space was \u201cno longer available for public use\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roger Radford, who regularly parked at the site before heading to work nearby, said he parked there without any issues in the morning but a colleague arrived around 10am to find the boom gate locked.<\/p>\n

\u201cA heap of cars locked in there, one of them being mine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The former Swisherr car park at the old K&D Warehouse site was suddenly shut down<\/p>\n

Radford said drivers were told they\u2019d need to pay $70 in cash to retrieve their vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo exceptions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Drivers in Hobart arrived to find their cars trapped behind a locked boom gate<\/p>\n

\u201cSeventy bucks cash is a bit steep, not many people carry cash these days and with the cost of living crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Radford said the site had previously been managed under an ongoing agreement with Swisherr, but ownership recently changed hands.<\/p>\n

The Tony White Group purchased the former K&D warehouse on Melville Street from the University of Tasmania last month for $31 million.<\/p>\n

Radford said there\u2019d been no communication about whether parking would continue under the new ownership, so regulars had kept using the site for around a month after the changeover.<\/p>\n

\"\"Drivers were told they would need to pay $70 in cash to retrieve their vehicles<\/p>\n

He said the parking app Curb Parking was still accepting bookings for the site on the morning of the lockout.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like they\u2019re following a process, they\u2019ve just got things in the wrong order,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bit of notice first, shut down the Curb app, then start locking people in, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Radford said a colleague spent at least 15 minutes on the phone to Wilson Security trying to sort out access, speaking to multiple people.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Tony White Group purchased the former K&D warehouse for $31 million<\/p>\n

\u201cThe contact centre people are saying, you know, they think it\u2019s a bit rough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no notice given.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to Pulse on Saturday afternoon, after repeated attempts to contact the company on Friday, a Wilson Security spokesperson said no motorists were charged a fee to exit the car park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reference to a $70 let-out fee appeared on a standard sign template used at other car parks, but it was not applied in this instance,\u201d the spokesperson said, but would not detail why the sign had unusually requested a cash-only payment.<\/p>\n

The car park came under new ownership from Thursday, which saw Wilson Security engaged by Tony White Group to help secure the site following the change.<\/p>\n

\"\"A Wilson Security guard was placed on-site. Image \/ Pulse (File)<\/p>\n

\u201cAs such, the boom gates were secured on Thursday after the car park had been cleared,\u201d the Wilson Security spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA guard was not stationed onsite earlier on Friday morning because the site was closed and was not intended to be open for public parking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Wilson Security became aware motorists had accessed the closed site on Friday despite the boom gates being secured, a guard was placed onsite to secure the car park, prevent further entry and assist motorists to exit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the car park\u2019s appearance on the previous parking app \u201ccontributed to confusion for motorists\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tony White Group did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drivers in Hobart turned up to collect their cars from a well-known city car park on Friday morning,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-704280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}