‘Ridiculous’ fine most Aussies don’t know about
A Gold Coast mum who received a nearly $200 fine for parking in her own driveway has claimed a “fine blitz” is underway in her neighbourhood and she wants to warn others against making the same mistake.
The local council claims part of Megan Pass’ driveway is located on council land and she is breaking the law by parking on it.
“I had no idea,” she tod the NCA NewsWire.
“I find it ridiculous, I don’t have a footpath and I’ve never had anybody say anything.”
After getting over the initial shock, she posted the fine in her community Facebook page in an effort to warn her neighbours before they were caught off guard by the same thing.
“I let my neighbors know because we all have quite steep driveways, its difficult for a lot of us to park,” she said.
She received a flood of messages in response to the post, mostly expressing outrage and disbelief over having never heard of such a fine, but also a few people sharing similar experiences.
“My mum was parked on the grass...to walk my grandfather in before she parked around the corner. Would have been 15-20 mins whilst we settled him, but [she] got done,” one person wrote in the comments section.
She has lived at the home for seven years and said she parks her car there every day and has never been fined before.
One of the main reasons she does is to make it easier for her and her three kids to buckle their seatbelts without them getting jammed.
However, after the reaction she received from people in her neighbourhood, she feels certain they are being targeted for these kinds of offences.
“I already knew they were blitzing because a mum posted in the parents page at my children's school, asking if anybody else had gotten a fine while waiting to pull into a car park at school,” she said.
“We were all like “What?!,”
The Gold Coast Council website warns homeowners they cannot stop on council land or any other access point – including their own driveway– for more than two minutes.
They must be dropping off or picking up passenger and must not leave their vehicle unattended within the time frame.
Ms Pass was told the reason cars aren’t allowed to be parked on the nature strip, is to allow emergency vehicles to drive along there if the road is blocked off.
However, she recalls a time when paramedics were called to her house while the car was parked up near her garage and was told it actually makes it much harder to get to the front door.
“The paramedic actually said next time, if your cars up here, can you pop it down because it’s actually in the way of us getting to the door,” she said.
She said her biggest issue was she never received a warning before she was slapped with the fine, and wanted to make sure others don’t get the same rude shock.
“I always knew that you can’t block footpaths, but its been seven years and and there’s never been a fine for parking on my driveway,” she said.
People took to social media to share their thoughts on the Gold Coast mum’s plight, with one calling it “revenue raising”.
“What a joke - revenue raising at its best,” one user posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Yip I got one of those fines lol. Just paid it. Don’t have time spare to go court to be told… you broke the law… pay the fine,” another said.
“Will the mayor mow the footpath once a week and water it? That bloke’s a goose,” a third wrote.
The council website explains there is an important distinction between a person's driveway, which ends at the property boundary, and a section referred to as the “vehicle crossing”, which covers the section of the driveway between the boundary and the road.
This section of the driveway is considered to be council land.
Gold Coast Council mayor Tom Tate said parking on council land, even if it’s technically on your own driveway, is illegal under local legislation.
“It’s a safety issue … that’s why they’ve issued it, and it’s part of the local law,” he told 7NEWS.
Drivers are instead encouraged to park in their garage or on the street.
