Docklands residents fed up of their Melbourne waterfront suburb being turned into a dumping ground

Residents and business owners in an exclusive harborside suburb are furious that their beloved community has become a ghetto for abandoned shopping carts.

Locals have come to call the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Docklands ‘Dumplands’ due to the large number of trolleys dotted along sidewalks, outside apartment blocks and in parks.

Frustrated supermarket owner Sam Bombagi is fed up with customers dumping their trolleys everywhere, which has become an eyesore.

‘It’s a very windy place, so sometimes the carts just go over the sidewalk and into the street. It is dangerous and it looks bad for the suburb,” he told A Current Affair.

Mr. Bombagi is so fed up that he has even confronted cart dumpers caught red-handed.

“I actually question them and they don’t really care,” he said.

“They don’t care about that dollar or two, so they just keep doing it.”

Mr. Bombagi doesn’t have shopping carts in his store, but he has a simple solution.

“I think the lock system is probably the best way, with the carts not moving more than 500 to 600 meters from the District Shopping Centre,” he said.

“This prevents people from using the carts all the way here.”

Residents have filed many complaints, but are frustrated that their concerns are falling on deaf ears.

Other locals have taken a light-hearted approach to the ongoing saga.

The abandoned cart problems have inspired a humorous Facebook page‘Trolleys of Docklands’, which ‘tells the real stories of trolleys that have been lost and live on the streets of Docklands.’

Posters on the page write captions for photos of dumped trolleys and some even write trolley-inspired poetry.

Residents of Docklands (pictured) are fed up with their suburb being used as a dumping ground for abandoned trolleys

The song has inspired the Facebook page ‘Trolleys of Docklands’

The plague of dumped trolleys in Docklands has been described by locals as ‘a shocking situation’

The City of Melbourne Council is aware of a growing number of complaints about the abandoned trolleys in Docklands.

It is investigating the matter and warned that those caught dumping trolleys could be fined up to $1,150.

“As owners of the trolleys, we urge supermarket operators to put processes in place to quickly retrieve them,” the municipality said.

We have contacted supermarket operators in Docklands several times in the past to resolve this issue, and we encourage everyone to report any abandoned trolleys to Trolley Tracker.”

The council has warned that those caught dumping trolleys could be fined up to $1150

Woolworths says the vast majority of shoppers are doing well by returning shopping trolleys to the store.

“We understand that abandoned carts can be a nuisance, which is why we are investing millions in collection services and have implemented additional measures, including a locking mechanism, to mitigate their impact on the community,” a spokesperson said.

‘We work closely with dedicated collection companies who respond quickly to reports of abandoned carts to return them to our stores.

‘They also regularly sweep the streets around our stores for abandoned carts.’

Daily Mail Australia contacted Woolworths for further comment.