By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
SENDING the Moe Central Business District into a tailspin, the George Street youth precinct is claiming victims left, right and centre.
The relatively new skate park (established in 2023) has become a hive for antisocial behaviour and youth crime, seeing the once celebrated family hub become regularly avoided.
Sumo Skate Store, located across the road from the skate park, closed its doors permanently in Moe last Sunday (June 28) due to the rampant conduct occurring, which has slowed down business dramatically in the last year.
Previously a deep advocate of the skate park, owner Pascal Fullerton decided to move to an online forum until he can find a safer and more viable place to operate away from town.
“We’re just going to take the business online basically until we can find a premise somewhere else that’s got higher footfall because the centre of Moe at the minute, there’s no one coming into town,” he told the Express.
“It’s pretty quiet, well, extremely quiet.”
Mr Fullerton said that the weekends use to be his busiest days, but became his quietest point of the week due to the limited amount of people that walk the streets of the CBD.
Countless incidents at the skate park involving young gangs, whether it be fistfights or even worse, have been witnessed, to go along with constant antisocial action in the public toilets.
In visiting one of the restrooms, Mr Fullerton counted 21 syringes in one stall, which has been noticed by taxi drivers at the rank positioned at the front of the precinct and toilets.
At night, taxi drivers rarely sit at the rank by themselves due to safety concerns with undesirable individuals hanging around the area.
The dangerous nature of the skate park, which has only gotten worse in recent months, has driven families away and has seen a severe drop in customers for Sumo Skate Store.
“I get people who will come in the shop and say that they don’t go there anymore … people travel all the way into the city when they’ve got a perfectly good skate park literally two kilometres from their house,” Mr Fullerton added.
“You’ve got one of the best skate parks in Gippsland and having a skate shop right beside it, fantastic. But, if it’s not getting used obviously, neither is the skate shop.
“It just doesn’t make any sense to keep a business going just to be a constant witness to antisocial behaviour.”
In a given week, Mr Fullerton noted nine police callouts to the skate park in five days.
Sumo Skate Store was located at the front of the George St arcade alongside Turn Back Time Café, which also closed down in June after 14 years in Moe.
Mr Fullerton raised concerns regarding how unsafe the skate park had become with Member for Morwell Martin Cameron at the beginning of last year.
Moe business owners, including Sumo Skate Store and Turn Back Time Café, then held a meeting with Latrobe City Mayor Sharon Gibson, Moe Police and relevant stakeholders this year about the same issues.
Mr Fullerton suggested to Cr Gibson the instalment of more local law officers in Moe to enforce stricter fines, which would hopefully deter the behaviour, especially of young people.
Council informed the Express it remains a strong advocate for improved community safety across all town centres, including requesting additional Protection Services Officers (PSOs) and funding support for outreach services.
Council pointed to the Moe Shredfest event held at the skate park as an example of its commitment to supporting local business activation in the town.
The business and economic development team at Latrobe City Council is said to be actively engaging with businesses across the Moe CBD to promote available small business support grants.
The relocated skate park took close to two decades of lobbying, which was previously positioned closer to the overpass roundabout, which Mr Fullerton obviously supported at the time.
He now says that many neighbouring business owners, including himself, would rather see the skate park turned back into carparks due to what it is continually attracting.
“I’d help roll the cement to get rid of it because it’s gotten that bad, and I’m sure a lot of other businesses would say the same,” Mr Fullerton conceded.
The skate store owner would routinely help keep the skate park clean, but between constant bad behaviour and littering (namely smashed glass), he stopped bothering.
The Latrobe Valley has consistently ranked near the top of regional Victoria for crime, with the latest figures revealing 10,312 incidents and more than 14,000 offences recorded for the year ending March, 2026.
Ballarat was the highest Local Government Area (LGAS) for the regions, with the next closest to Latrobe being Shepparton with a gap of over 3000 incidents.
The understaffed Moe Police Station recently reduced its reception hours permanently from 10am to 6pm, allowing them to bolster the number of available officers in the community.
Latrobe City Council encourages people to report any behaviour that makes them feel unsafe to Victoria Police or by submitting an anonymous report via Crime Stoppers on 1300 333 000.
