Rohan Smith

Melbourne

Acting Deputy Editor at News.com.au

Acting sections editor for https://t.co/d997raiwpY. Overseeing verticals including finance, lifestyle, travel, entertainment and technology. DMs open.

Articles

Samantha Azzopardi, Malka Leifer prison relationship, kiss exposed

1 week ago | news.com.au | Rohan Smith

One of Australia’s most prolific conwomen — best known for her twisted portrayal of a vulnerable “schoolgirl” — has struck up a relationship with an ex-principal predator while behind bars at a maximum security prison in Melbourne. Samantha Azzopardi, 36, was jailed for two years last October for posing as a 17-year-old sex-trafficked schoolgirl from Belgium named Hattie Leigh and collecting more than $20,000 meant for victims of domestic violence.
Period home demolished in Melbourne’s north as NIMBYs fight development

2 weeks ago | news.com.au | Rohan Smith

Oakhill estate in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir is one of the most sought-after pockets in all of the city’s north. And there’s a special reason for that. On every street in the area are emaculately-maintained Californian bungalows — a style of home that exploded in popularity in Melbourne from about 1915 until 1940. You can’t miss them — their characteristic single-storey, low-pitched roof and front porch have been home to generations of locals in the vibrant Italian and Greek neighbourhood.
Richmond injecting room: Drug users say it saved their lives

3 weeks ago | news.com.au | Rohan Smith

Dead bodies on the street. Drug users injecting in broad daylight. It’s a horror show for some but recovering addicts say it’s not the whole story. News.com.au last week visited Richmond, an inner-city suburb that is home to Melbourne’s heroin epidemic and the site of the city’s only injecting room.
Melbourne drug crisis: Injecting room, Richmond in spotlight, overdose video

1 month ago | news.com.au | Rohan Smith

WARNING: Disturbing content. A woman hovers over a man in the darkness. She is holding a needle to his neck, injecting what she later reveals to be “pure heroin”. Within minutes, the man is stumbling around, slapping himself in the face and writhing on the ground. “He just had a whack of pure heroin, I shouldn’t have given it to him, f***. Any Narcan?” the woman asks in reference to the antidote to opioid drugs.
Melbourne drug crisis: Junkies take over Richmond near safe injecting room

1 month ago | news.com.au | Rohan Smith

A child’s pink bike, fitted with training wheels, rests against the wall in the corridor next to piles of rubbish, used syringes and a Coles shopping trolley. The smell is putrid — a mix of urine and cigarette smoke. A procession of drug users make their way past security on the ground floor and into the lifts. They will be met, according to residents I spoke with, by a dealer in her 80s selling the “cheapest and purest quality drugs”.
Melbourne Grand Prix: Middle Park split over massive event impact

1 month ago | cairnspost.com.au | Rohan Smith

The median house price here is $2.6m and the beach is a short walk away. It’s a dream suburb for 11 months of the year. But residents who live in Middle Park are divided each March when one of the biggest events on the planet moves in next door. Middle Park, for those who live outside Melbourne, is a small pocket between Albert Park and St Kilda — home to roughly 4000 people. It sits snugly between the Albert Park racetrack and the sandy foreshore that leads into Port Phillip Bay.
Irish trio Kneecap’s wild Melbourne show feat. King’s decapitated head

1 month ago | cairnspost.com.au | Rohan Smith

Federation Square is not small. Reaching capacity — where revellers are turned away — is no small feat. That’s exactly what three rappers from Belfast managed to do last Monday in scenes the city has rarely, if ever, witnessed. Kneecap, the trio from Northern Ireland, are loudly and proudly pro-Palestinian and anti-colonial. They sent the crowd into a frenzy for the free gig opposite Flinders Street Station while fans waved Irish, Palestinian and Aboriginal flags.
Victoria bail laws: Youth gangs, violent criminals to be locked up

1 month ago | news.com.au | Rohan Smith

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to a group of men with their faces covered, some carrying machetes, standing over you in bed. For so many Victorians, they don’t need to imagine it — it is forever seared into their memories. The suburbs, particularly those affluent areas around bayside Melbourne, have become home to a crime crisis that went largely uninterrupted for the best part of two years.
Melbourne mega-cities on urban fringe hiding huge problem

1 month ago | news.com.au | Rohan Smith

Melbourne’s population is booming. It was true when I wrote that seven years ago and it continues to be true today. In percentage terms, it is growing faster than any other capital city. By 2034, Melbourne’s population will jump from 5.2 million to a staggering 6.5 million. Mostly, the change is hard to notice. But on Melbourne’s fringe, you can’t miss it.
St Kilda: Mayor ‘sick’ over plan to fix crime, drug use, anti-social behaviour

2 months ago | news.com.au | Rohan Smith

A Melbourne council has unanimously voted for a controversial “solution” to a complex crime crisis despite the local mayor admitting she feels “sick to the pit of my stomach” over the proposal. News.com.au this week revealed the scale of crime and drug use in the Melbourne bayside suburb of St Kilda with residents and businesses declaring it the “worst it’s been in 35 years”.