Story
Column
My question
As an international student, I chose my car for one reason: reliability. So I bought a used 2010 Honda Civic. I live in an apartment near Southern Cross Station, and the Civic leads a three-part life. Most of the time it sits in a friend’s apartment-building car park. During the day it often spends a few hours on the street. When my friend or his partner needs the spot, I pay for a night in a multi-level car park.
Every time I move it, I wonder which spot is actually safest, and whether paying for parking buys me any real protection. The dashboard shows what ten years of Victorian crime records told me.
The answer
The street is where most vehicle crime happens. In the year to June 2026 it accounted for 43% of thefts from vehicles in Victoria and 33% of vehicle thefts, far more than any kind of car park.
My friend’s apartment-building car park is the quietest of my three spots, with 4.0% of thefts from vehicles.
Paying for a multi-storey car park helps, but less than I assumed. It accounts for a similarly small share (4.9%), yet thefts from vehicles there grew 3.1 times since 2017, the fastest growth of any location. And if something is taken, 94% of cases stay unsolved.
These are counts of where crime happens, not the odds for one parked car: nobody records how many cars use each kind of parking.
What I’m doing about it
There’s an upside to choosing an older, reliable car. My Civic starts with a physical key, and police link most recent car thefts to popular push-button-start models, which thieves take with key-cloning devices (Victoria Police, 2026). So losing the whole car isn’t my main worry. Thefts from cars are: last year my postcode recorded 2.9 of them for every vehicle stolen. Victoria Police (2026) recommends a steering-wheel lock and parking off the street where possible.
For me that means keeping my friend’s spot as the default, limiting street parking to daytime, and never leaving anything visible inside, even in the paid car park. It also means fitting anti-theft screws to my number plates.
Column
Chart by chart
1 Where I live Postcode 3000 is a vehicle-crime hotspot
What it showsPostcode 3000 recorded 1,598 thefts from vehicles, the 3rd highest of 690 Victorian postcodes. Most of the darkest postcodes are in the inner city, along with a few industrial or fast-growing outer suburbs such as Campbellfield and Rockbank. Resident-based rates overstate the CBD, where many parked cars belong to commuters and visitors, and fast-growing suburbs whose population has risen since 2021.
How to read itEach Melbourne postcode is shaded by offences per 1,000 residents in the year to June 2026. Switch between the two crimes with the control at the top right, hover over a postcode for its numbers, and zoom or drag to explore. The outlined postcode is 3000; the marker is Southern Cross Station.
Show the data
| Postcode | Suburbs | Thefts from vehicles | Vehicles stolen | Residents (2021) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3175 | Dandenong, Dandenong North, Dandenong South | 1,663 | 663 | 53,545 |
| 3029 | Tarneit, Hoppers Crossing, Truganina | 1,641 | 880 | 129,888 |
| 3000 | Melbourne | 1,598 | 549 | 43,084 |
| 3977 | Cranbourne, Cranbourne North, Cranbourne West, Cranbourne East, Skye | 1,418 | 601 | 117,143 |
| 3064 | Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park, Mickleham | 1,131 | 612 | 114,413 |
| 3020 | Sunshine, Sunshine North, Sunshine West, Albion | 997 | 344 | 44,372 |
| 3199 | Frankston, Frankston South | 996 | 276 | 56,127 |
| 3121 | Richmond, Cremorne | 942 | 244 | 31,534 |
| 3006 | Southbank | 934 | 379 | 22,699 |
| 3805 | Narre Warren, Narre Warren South | 922 | 448 | 58,600 |
2 My postcode Vehicle crime in 3000 grew far faster than in Victoria
What it showsThefts from vehicles in 3000 went from 589 in 2017 to a peak of 2,340 in 2025, about 4.0 times as many, while Victoria's total grew far less. Vehicle thefts in 3000 rose from 197 to 549. The latest year fell back from the peak but is still well above where the decade began.
How to read itColumns show the offences recorded in the selected postcode each year (years ending June): orange for thefts from vehicles, blue for vehicles stolen. The dotted line shows how many thefts from vehicles the postcode would have recorded if it had changed at Victoria's rate since 2017. The headline compares the change since 2017 with Victoria's. Pick another inner-city postcode from the drop-down in the panel's title bar, and hover for exact numbers.
Show the data
| Year | 3000 · stolen from a vehicle | 3000 · vehicle stolen | Victoria · stolen from a vehicle | Victoria · vehicle stolen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 589 | 197 | 63,173 | 22,252 |
| 2018 | 522 | 229 | 55,317 | 18,008 |
| 2019 | 484 | 235 | 55,807 | 18,626 |
| 2020 | 542 | 281 | 62,426 | 20,253 |
| 2021 | 413 | 233 | 47,064 | 15,393 |
| 2022 | 575 | 300 | 46,657 | 14,639 |
| 2023 | 543 | 314 | 52,855 | 18,673 |
| 2024 | 984 | 463 | 61,940 | 23,230 |
| 2025 | 2,340 | 560 | 86,306 | 33,012 |
| 2026 | 1,598 | 549 | 77,348 | 31,298 |
3 My parking spots The street has the most crime; multi-storey car parks grew fastest
What it showsThe street is still the biggest single location: 43% of thefts from vehicles and 33% of vehicle thefts in the year to June 2026. But the fastest growth for both crimes was in multi-storey car parks, where thefts from vehicles rose from 1,146 to 3,596 and vehicle thefts from 287 to 1,107. Over the same years, thefts from vehicles grew 2.0 times in apartment-building car parks and 1.4 times on the street. These are counts, not risk per parked car: nobody records how many cars use each kind of parking, and more cars may now use multi-storey car parks. Still, paying for a car park is not the safe haven I assumed.
How to read itEach pair of bars is a type of location across Victoria: orange for thefts from vehicles, blue for vehicles stolen. The three rows in bold, with solid bars, are where my Civic spends its time; the faded rows are there for comparison. Each label shows the number of offences in 2026 and, in brackets, how many times as many as in 2017. The Offences / Growth switch in the title bar changes the bar length between the number of offences and growth since 2017.
Show the data
| Crime | Location | 2017 | 2026 | Growth | Share in latest year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stolen from a vehicle | Street, lane or footpath | 22,647 | 31,533 | 1.4× | 42.9% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | Home driveway or carport | 11,858 | 9,714 | 0.8× | 13.2% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | Single-level car park | 4,245 | 7,585 | 1.8× | 10.3% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | At a house or flat | 8,689 | 5,712 | 0.7× | 7.8% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | Multi-storey car park | 1,146 | 3,596 | 3.1× | 4.9% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | Train station or station car park | 1,445 | 3,051 | 2.1× | 4.1% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | Apartment-building car park | 1,485 | 2,971 | 2.0× | 4% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | Front yard | 3,565 | 1,925 | 0.5× | 2.6% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | Shops, service stations & food outlets | 1,170 | 1,314 | 1.1× | 1.8% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | Car sales yard | 558 | 713 | 1.3× | 1% |
| Stolen from a vehicle | Home garage | 766 | 363 | 0.5× | 0.5% |
| Vehicle stolen | Street, lane or footpath | 6,311 | 10,299 | 1.6× | 33.2% |
| Vehicle stolen | At a house or flat | 4,127 | 5,051 | 1.2× | 16.3% |
| Vehicle stolen | Single-level car park | 1,256 | 3,291 | 2.6× | 10.6% |
| Vehicle stolen | Home driveway or carport | 2,679 | 2,859 | 1.1× | 9.2% |
| Vehicle stolen | Train station or station car park | 491 | 1,371 | 2.8× | 4.4% |
| Vehicle stolen | Multi-storey car park | 287 | 1,107 | 3.9× | 3.6% |
| Vehicle stolen | Shops, service stations & food outlets | 803 | 1,023 | 1.3× | 3.3% |
| Vehicle stolen | Apartment-building car park | 411 | 885 | 2.2× | 2.9% |
| Vehicle stolen | Front yard | 1,068 | 670 | 0.6× | 2.2% |
| Vehicle stolen | Car sales yard | 493 | 427 | 0.9× | 1.4% |
| Vehicle stolen | Home garage | 582 | 309 | 0.5× | 1% |
4 If it happens Most cases are never solved
What it shows93.9% of thefts from vehicles in the year to June 2026 were unsolved, and the share ending in an arrest or summons fell from 9.4% in 2017 to 3.9%. Older cases have had more time to be solved, so part of the recent rise reflects time rather than police performance alone. If someone breaks into my Civic, I should expect to lose whatever was taken. Prevention matters more than the chance of getting things back.
How to read itEach cell is the share of that year's offences that were still unsolved, or that ended in an arrest or summons, measured when the data was extracted in July 2026. Darker cells mean a larger share. The years marked * are the most recent, where some cases are still being investigated. Hover over a cell for the number of offences.
Show the data
| Year | Vehicle stolen · Arrest or summons | Vehicle stolen · Unsolved | Stolen from a vehicle · Arrest or summons | Stolen from a vehicle · Unsolved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 26.5% | 63.6% | 9.4% | 88.3% |
| 2018 | 26% | 62.8% | 8.7% | 88.7% |
| 2019 | 25.1% | 62.1% | 8.7% | 88.4% |
| 2020 | 27% | 60% | 8.3% | 88.6% |
| 2021 | 26.2% | 59.2% | 8.9% | 87.8% |
| 2022 | 27.8% | 56.9% | 8.9% | 87.8% |
| 2023 | 28.2% | 56.4% | 8% | 88.6% |
| 2024 | 25.8% | 60.7% | 6.4% | 90.3% |
| 2025 | 23.3% | 66.1% | 4.9% | 92.7% |
| 2026 | 19.6% | 69.6% | 3.9% | 93.9% |
5 Why the CBD More apartments, more theft
What it showsAcross 382 postcodes, the share of apartments and the rate of theft from vehicles rise together (Spearman's ρ = 0.63). Postcode 3000 sits at the extreme, with 236 thefts per 1,000 vehicles kept at local homes. The real risk per car is lower, because thousands of commuters' and visitors' cars park in the CBD every day and aren't in the denominator. One likely reason for the pattern is that in apartment areas more cars are parked on the street or in shared car parks, and Chart 3 shows the street is where vehicle crime is most common.
How to read itEach circle is a Victorian postcode with at least 2,000 residents. Across is the share of homes that are flats or apartments; up is thefts from vehicles per 1,000 vehicles kept at local homes (log scale); circle size is the number of those vehicles. The grey line is the overall trend; the headline gives the rank correlation. Type a postcode or suburb into the search box in the panel's title bar, or click a circle, to move the highlight ring and label to it. Double-click to return to 3000.
Show the data
| Postcode | Apartments | Thefts from vehicles | Home vehicles | Per 1,000 home vehicles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3000 Melbourne | 99% | 1,598 | 6,778 | 236 |
| 3053 Carlton | 81% | 613 | 4,449 | 138 |
| 3006 Southbank | 98% | 934 | 8,194 | 114 |
| 3205 South Melbourne | 59% | 613 | 5,553 | 110 |
| 3052 Parkville | 61% | 268 | 2,433 | 110 |
| 3061 Campbellfield | 3% | 270 | 2,703 | 100 |
| 3002 East Melbourne | 74% | 270 | 2,730 | 99 |
| 3051 North Melbourne | 68% | 502 | 5,557 | 90 |
| 3011 Footscray | 44% | 893 | 10,540 | 85 |
| 3065 Fitzroy | 59% | 352 | 4,346 | 81 |
| 3003 West Melbourne | 80% | 236 | 2,986 | 79 |
| 3335 Rockbank | 1% | 281 | 3,805 | 74 |
| 3031 Kensington | 39% | 640 | 8,710 | 73 |
| 3181 Prahran | 60% | 729 | 10,266 | 71 |
| 3019 Braybrook | 4% | 325 | 4,989 | 65 |