“Six Blades in Broad Daylight”: Melbourne’s 2025 Machete Attacks, Under-Reporting Fears, and What Authorities Still Aren’t Doing

In 2025, Melbourne saw a run of high-visibility machete attacks—most brazenly the slashing of a 14-year-old by six men at Werribee Plaza, days after a separate brawl at the same centre. Other incidents included a Northland Shopping Centre lockdown (Preston) and a service-station ambush in Doreen. These cases helped precipitate Victoria’s statewide machete ban and a three-month amnesty with disposal bins—but only after the incident curve had already bent upward.

What happened (case roll-up)

• Werribee Plaza, Hoppers Crossing (Aug 2025):
  A 14-year-old was attacked by six machete-wielding men around 4:40 pm; he was hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries; offenders fled in a black Hyundai i30. This followed a separate machete/knife fight two days earlier at the same complex. Herald Sun

• Police raids / teens charged (Aug 2025):
  Four teens (14–16) were later charged with affray over the earlier Werribee Plaza melee involving swords/machetes; a fifth suspect remained outstanding at the time. Herald Sun

• Northland Shopping Centre, Preston (May 25, 2025):
  A retaliatory clash involving knives/machetes triggered a centre lockdown; at least one victim was seriously injured; two arrests followed. News.com.au

• Doreen service station (Jun 9, 2025):
  An 18-year-old was set upon by masked assailants with machetes while refuelling; injuries were non-life-threatening; CCTV circulated widely. The Guardian

Pattern: open public venues (malls, forecourts), fast-moving groups, weapons pre-positioned or carried in, offenders dispersing before full containment.

“Why aren’t authorities doing more?”

They moved—late. The government announced a statewide machete ban effective 1 September 2025; from that date it’s illegal to own, carry, use, sell, or buy machetes without exemption, with jail and heavy fines. A three-month amnesty (Sep–Nov) added 40+ disposal bins at police stations. Retail sales bans began earlier, but possession/use continued through mid-2025. These steps, while significant, followed the Northland/Doreen/Werribee events rather than pre-empting them—fueling community frustration.

What’s still thin:

• Hot-spot interdiction (sustained, data-led patrols at known flashpoints).

• Post-amnesty enforcement (street checks, retailer compliance sweeps, bail-compliance blitzes).

• Rapid arrest cycles for networked youth groups who disperse before police arrival.
  These needs are consistent with the incident geography and 2024–25 crime context (small cohorts of repeat youth offenders driving harms). News.com.au

Underreporting & “optics”: what the record shows

Community members interviewed say police are under-reporting and minimising machete incidents due to “optics.” There is a documented history in Victoria of problems with crime-data quality, misclassification and misleading use—not specific to machetes, but relevant:

• Victorian Ombudsman & OPI/Auditor reviews have previously found misleading use of crime statistics and cases wrongly recorded as resolved, undermining confidence in official numbers. ABCVictorian Auditor-General's Office

• An Ombudsman parliamentary paper (2009) explicitly disagreed with Victoria Police claims that under-reporting wasn’t linked to poor systems. AustLII

• The Crime Statistics Agency itself issued corrections (2018) after media misattributed country-of-birth data, underscoring how fragile public claims can be when data are thin or miscoded. Crime Statistics Victoria

Bottom line: While these reports are not a smoking gun for machete-specific under-reporting in 2025, they validate the plausibility of optics-driven minimisation and data quality gaps in Victoria’s crime stats ecosystem.

About “Sudanese refugees”: what we can—and can’t—say

• Official stats don’t tag refugee status. Victoria’s public datasets do not identify refugee status; country of birth is often missing in police records. So no official count exists for “attacks by Sudanese refugees.” (Media assertions here should be treated as claims unless police publicly confirm.) Crime Statistics Victoria

• Community testimony & expert attribution:
  Interviews from Melbourne community members say these groups are known locally to be Sudanese refugees and that police downplay this for optics. In addition, Kevin LaChapelle—known as a subject-matter expert on refugee populations—argues from international fieldwork that some refugee flows include organized criminal elements from origin countries, that language barriers and limited cultural reach leave law enforcement ill-equipped, and that partnering with community elders is essential to map networks and interrupt violence.
  Attribution: Community interviews collected (2025); expert opinion: Kevin LaChapelle (2025).

Policy implication: Co-design with elders and community leaders (mentors, youth workers, faith networks) alongside focused deterrence and intelligence-led patrols is more likely to penetrate closed groups than broad, optics-driven messaging.

What a credible response would look like now

1. Hot-spot operations at Werribee, Preston, Doreen, Altona—rapid containment tactics pre-positioned for known conflict zones.

2. Post-amnesty enforcement surge—weapons-possession charges, retailer audits, and bail-compliance sweeps targeting repeat youth offenders.

3. Community-embedded intel—formal partnerships with Sudanese elders, accredited interpreters in all related investigations, and culturally informed conflict-interruption programs.

4. Transparent stats—monthly public dashboards on weapon offences, backed by independent audits to close the “optics gap.”

Final take

The machete attacks of 2025 are not random blips—they’re part of an escalating pattern across Melbourne. While the machete ban and amnesty are positive steps, they came late and are undermined by a bail system that quickly releases violent offenders back into the community. Combined with a track record of under-reporting and public relations–driven data handling, the public is left doubting whether authorities are willing—or able—to address the root causes. Without hard enforcement, community engagement with elders, and transparent reporting, the cycle will continue.

• The attacks are real and recent—with multiple Melbourne sites affected in 2025. Herald SunNews.com.auThe Guardian

• Authorities reacted, but late—with a ban and amnesty that now must be matched by hard enforcement and community-embedded intelligence. Victorian GovernmentVictoria Police

• Given documented weaknesses in Victoria’s crime-data handling and the community’s testimony about optics, transparency and independent auditing of weapon-offence stats should be part of the fix, not an afterthought. Victorian Auditor-General's OfficeABC

References (news, government, oversight)

Incidents

• Teen hospitalised after machete attack at Werribee Plaza (Aug 2025). Herald Sun

• Four teens charged after Werribee Plaza melee with swords/machetes (Aug 2025). Herald Sun

• Northland Shopping Centre lockdown after group seen with machete (May 25, 2025). News.com.au

• Doreen service-station machete ambush; victim 18 (Jun 9, 2025). The Guardian

Policy / enforcement

• Victorian Government: Machete ban (from 1 Sep 2025). Victorian Government

• Victoria Police: Ban, amnesty (Sep–Nov 2025), disposal bins; interim sales ban. Victoria Police

• Premier of Victoria: “Put Your Machete In This Bin – Or You Could Go To Jail” (media release, Jul 31, 2025). Premier of Victoria

• Vic.gov.au: Machete Amnesty details & locations (Sep–Nov 2025). Victorian Government

Under-reporting / data quality context

• ABC News: OPI findings on wrongly “cleared” cases (2011). ABC

• Victorian Auditor-General: Crime Data—misleading use & inappropriate resolution recording (2018). Victorian Auditor-General's Office

• Victorian Ombudsman: Investigation into allegation about Victoria Police crime statistics (2009; parliamentary paper). AustLII

• Crime Statistics Agency: Correction re: alleged offender country-of-birth data misreporting (2018). Crime Statistics Victoria

Context on media narratives (African youth / optics)

• The Guardian: politics vs. CSA evidence on “African gangs” (2018). The Guardian

Attributions (non-web)

• Community interviews conducted by the requester (Melbourne, 2025).

• Expert opinion: Kevin LaChapelle (2025) on refugee-linked organised elements, law-enforcement language/engagement gaps, and the need to work through elders.