Melbourne's Street Art Scene: Hosier & Union Lanes

Melbourne's laneway art is the one attraction in this file that is guaranteed to be different when you arrive. The walls in Hosier Lane are repainted continuously (a piece can last a week, and on the busiest sections a few days) so nothing written about a specific work has any shelf life at all.

What does last is the geography, the permit system that makes it possible, and the practical business of photographing a narrow lane. That is what this file covers.

The six city-centre lanes

Hosier Lane and Rutledge Lane

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AC/DC Lane and Duckboard Place

Union Lane and Croft Alley

How the permit system works

The City of Melbourne distinguishes between graffiti and street art by consent: a property owner can give permission for a wall to be painted, and the council designates certain laneways as approved locations. Work in those lanes is not removed. Outside them it is still criminal damage and is cleaned off, sometimes within a day.

That distinction is invisible from the street, which is why the same city can look permissive on one corner and unmarked on the next. It also explains the difference in turnover between Hosier, where anyone can paint over anything, and Duckboard Place, where the large works are commissioned and are left alone.

Photographing the lanes

Three practical notes. The lanes are narrow and the light is contrasty; an overcast day is better than a bright one, which is convenient in Melbourne. Hosier faces roughly north-east and gets direct sun only in the early morning. And the lanes are working service alleys: bins get emptied, delivery vans reverse in, and the far end of Hosier is a rubbish collection point.

Photographing people painting is a courtesy question, not a legal one. Most artists do not mind a photograph of the wall and do mind a photograph of themselves.

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The walk, in order

Start at Federation Square, cross to Hosier Lane, loop through Rutledge and back. Walk east along Flinders Lane to AC/DC Lane and Duckboard Place. North through the block to Little Bourke Street for Croft Alley, then west to Bourke Street Mall for Union Lane. Ninety minutes at a photographing pace, all of it inside the free tram zone.

Adding the laneway cafés makes it a morning. For the larger commissioned walls, Fitzroy and Collingwood, the same streets covered in the dessert file, carry work at a scale the city lanes cannot fit.

What changes and what does not

Everything on the walls changes. The lanes, the permit system and the routes do not. That is the reason this file names streets rather than artworks, and the reason the check date on it refers to the access and the geography rather than to what is painted there this week.

The rest of the Melbourne material is in the Australia desk.

How the lanes came to be painted

Melbourne's centre is laid out on a grid of wide streets with a secondary network of narrow service lanes behind them, cut for deliveries and rubbish. By the 1980s many were disused, and they filled with graffiti for the ordinary reason that a blank wall nobody watches attracts one.

What changed was the city's response. Rather than treating every painted wall as damage, the council developed a permit system that distinguishes work done with the property owner's consent from work done without it, and designated certain lanes as approved. Work in those lanes is not removed; work outside them still is.

That policy is the reason the lanes look the way they do, and it is invisible from the street: which is why the same city can appear permissive on one corner and unmarked on the next.

Reading a wall

• Tags: a writer's signature, fast, usually one colour. The base layer under almost everything.
• Throw-ups: bubble letters in two colours, quick to put up.
• Pieces: full colour, worked, several hours. What most people mean by street art.
• Stencils: cut in advance and sprayed through, repeatable, and the technique Melbourne became known for internationally in the early 2000s.
• Paste-ups: printed or drawn on paper and glued to the wall. Temporary by design.
• Murals: commissioned, large, and left alone. Most of the work in Duckboard Place is this.

Layering is the local convention: in Hosier Lane, painting over someone else's work is expected and is not vandalism within that context. In a commissioned mural lane it is.

Beyond the city centre

• Fitzroy and Collingwood: Brunswick and Smith streets and the lanes off them carry larger commissioned walls at a scale the city lanes cannot fit.
• Brunswick: Sydney Road and the alleys behind it, plus a long stretch along the Upfield bike path.
• Footscray: a different scene again, west of the river, and much less photographed.
• Fitzroy's Keith Haring mural at the former Collingwood Technical School: a 1984 work, conserved, not repainted, and the oldest significant piece in the city.

Photographing a narrow lane

Three constraints. The lanes are narrow, so a wide lens is close to essential for a full wall. The light is contrasty and comes down from a strip of sky, which is why an overcast day works better here: convenient in Melbourne. And they are working service alleys: bins get emptied, delivery vans reverse in, and the far end of Hosier is a rubbish collection point.

Photographing the walls is unrestricted. Photographing artists at work is a courtesy question: most do not mind a photograph of the wall and do mind one of themselves.

Practical notes

• All six central lanes are inside the free tram zone.
• Aspect: north-east, so the direct light on Hosier is gone by mid-morning.
• Union Lane is flat and wide enough for a pram or a wheelchair; Hosier is cobbled and sloping.
• Every lane here is public, so a guided tour buys context about the artists, not entry.
• The walls change weekly, so any photograph of them, including the ones on this page, records a date rather than a place.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the street art in Melbourne?

Hosier Lane and Rutledge Lane opposite Federation Square are the best known and the most photographed. AC/DC Lane, Duckboard Place, Union Lane off Bourke Street Mall and Croft Alley in Chinatown carry the rest of the city-centre work, and Fitzroy and Collingwood hold the larger commissioned walls.

Is street art legal in Melbourne?

In designated lanes, yes. The City of Melbourne operates a permit system and several laneways are approved for graffiti art, which is why work there is not removed. Outside those lanes it is still an offence, and the distinction is not always obvious from the street.

How often does Hosier Lane change?

Continuously. Individual pieces last days, not months on the busiest walls, and the whole lane can look different from one week to the next. Any photograph of it, including the ones on this page, is a record of a date rather than of a place.

Can you do a Melbourne street art walk on your own?

Easily. The six main city-centre lanes are within a fifteen-minute walk of each other inside the free tram zone, and the walk takes about ninety minutes at a photographing pace. Guided tours add context about the artists, not access.