Graffiti, unauthorised posters, and flyers
Maintaining a clean and attractive city for everyone.
The City of Adelaide’s Waste & Cleansing team do a fantastic job keeping Adelaide city, North Adelaide and the Park Lands clean and inviting places. Authorised street art is part of the City of Adelaide’s vision for a vibrant and liveable city.
Unfortunately, some people choose to leave their mark in an unauthorised way, through graffiti, unauthorised posters and flyers.
Graffiti
Graffiti is writing, tagging or drawing on a wall or item in a public or private space, without the owner’s permission.
All graffiti within council boundaries is removed as soon as practical once it has been brought to our attention.
If the graffiti is:
- Offensive because it displays of racist remarks, swear words and/or inappropriate drawings
- On our property such as council buildings, street furniture, traffic signals and pavements
- Where the graffiti is on private property and is public facing, if we can safely access it, we will clean it. If we cannot safely access it or have other questions then the cooperation of the property owner is required.
Any other type of Graffiti will be removed as part of our regular graffiti removal schedule.
Graffiti vandalism on other property should be referred to the relevant authority, including:
Adelaide Metro - 1300 311 108 general enquiries to report graffiti on Trains, Trams and Buses
Bus Shelters - 1800 501 402 Adshel
SA Housing Authority - 1300 720 127 or 131 288 for any graffiti on SAHT property
SA Power Networks - 13 12 61 Graffiti on SA Power Networks assets such as boxes and Stobie poles need to be reported by phoning or complete the online form here
SA Water - 1300 729 283 (General Enquires)
Telstra Equipment – 13 22 03 to report graffiti on phone boxes and equipment or online
How do I report graffiti?
The City of Adelaide encourages you to report graffiti as soon as you see it.
When reporting graffiti using our online form and it is helpful if you provide the following information:
- If we can’t find it, we can’t clean it so please provide the street number or full address of the graffiti location
- As many photos as you can of the graffiti and the area surrounding the graffiti so when our team attend the location they can find it easily
- Tell us what has been used to graffiti (if known) ie spray paint, permanent marker
- The type of surface has been graffitied ie brick wall, glass window etc (if known)
- If you have any other information about the graffiti, such as who is responsible (if you know), when the graffiti appeared or if similar graffiti have been seen in/near this location before.
NOTE: Graffiti outside of the City of Adelaide boundaries needs to be reported to the appropriate council to be cleansed.
We will not remove graffiti which is:
- From building construction sites, abandoned buildings and demolition sites due to associated risk with Workplace Health and Safety
- At a height greater than three meters from the ground or footpath for safety reasons
- On private property that is internally facing because this is the responsibility of the owner to remove
- On murals or works of visual art because they are likely to be further damaged by the cleaning process. We recommend contacting the person who owns/is responsible for the mural to have it fixed
- On vehicles because they are likely to be further damaged by the cleaning process
- On residential or business bins
In most instances, graffiti is recorded and photographed and kept for future reference.
In the west end of Adelaide, street artists can create temporary, public works of art on a free graffiti wall under the Morphett Street bridge.
Otherwise known as ‘bill posting’, it’s the display or placement of advertising material on property (buildings, vehicles, street furniture, road-side and railway infrastructure) without the permission of the owner or occupier.
A bill includes:
- Flyers
- Brochures
- Posters containing promotional material
Note: a moveable election sign that is placed or maintained on a road is not a bill.
It is illegal to conduct any bill posting without the consent of the owner or occupier of the property where the bill is to be posted, whether it be councils, businesses, government or individual persons.
How do I report bill posting?
The City of Adelaide encourages you to report illegal bill posting to us. Please contact the City of Adelaide Customer Centre.
To assist us, please provide as much information as possible.
Need more information?
If you have any questions about the graffiti, unauthorised posters, and flyers, please contact the Customer Centre: