{"id":783541,"date":"2026-07-06T22:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783541\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T22:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:40:17","slug":"melbourne-police-in-standoff-with-graffiti-artist-perched-above-pam-the-bird-tag-on-bolte-bridge-tower-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783541\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne police in standoff with graffiti artist perched above Pam the Bird tag on Bolte Bridge tower | Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Police in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/melbourne\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Melbourne<\/a> are stuck in a standoff with a man on top of a major inner-city bridge after a dangerous graffiti stunt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Emergency services were called to the Bolte Bridge at 3am on Tuesday over reports a graffiti artist had climbed up one of the bridge\u2019s 120-metre high pillars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Police allege the man abseiled down the pillar and painted a giant Pam the Bird tag, which has been illegally painted on Melbourne landmarks for years, often in difficult to reach places and on heritage-listed buildings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">A police spokesperson said they were negotiating with the man to get him down safely.<\/p>\n<p>A still image from Channel Nine footage of a graffiti artist on a pillar of the Bolte Bridge in Melbourne. Photograph: Nine News\/PR IMAGE<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cHe is refusing to follow police direction and come down,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThere are a significant number of police resources in the area including uniform members and water police units.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">They said there was no threat to the public or road users and one lane of the bridge is closed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">An Instagram page, @pambirdofficial, has shared videos appearing to be from the top of the pillar on Tuesday with the hashtag #notcomingdown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In one video, a caption says: \u201cLower the taxes and drone me some fucken food! Let\u2019s go boys and girls!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In the same video, a man\u2019s voice says: \u201cI\u2019m not coming down until they lower the taxes. Fucking sick of paying that shit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A general view of the Bolte Bridge seen from South Melbourne. Photograph: James Ross\/AAP<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Another video shows feet dangling off the tower and zooms in on a large police presence down below before the man \u201cflips the bird\u201d to officers down below. Later, he added a request for a blanket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">It is not yet known who the man on the Bolte Bridge is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, told the ABC: \u201cI think the system is handling the matter as it should \u2026 I think it\u2019s appropriate that the legal process takes its course\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police in Melbourne are stuck in a standoff with a man on top of a major inner-city bridge&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-783541","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\/783541","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=783541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}