Injecting room would be ‘nail in the coffin’ for Melbourne’s ‘premier tourist street’

A second Melbourne drug injecting room is expected to be set up just 38 metres from Melbourne’s busiest train station, beside one of the city’s most popular tourist sites.

The Age reports the former Yooralla building at 244-248 Flinders Street is the preferred site for the facility.

The site is very close to popular al fresco dining strip, Degraves Street.

Alex Hill, manager of United Backpackers, which shares a wall with the proposed site.

He says an injecting room would be “another addition to the nails in the coffin we’ve had here in Degraves Street over the last couple of years”.

Roadworks in that section of Flinders Street have been underway since late 2019, and are expected to continue for years as part of the Metro Tunnel project.

“Along with that we’re proposing a safe injecting room on Melbourne’s premier tourist street!,” Mr Hill said.

“It would affect the people who come to this part of the city, not just my customers.

“It’s what drives Melbourne, these laneways, as a tourist destination, and you’re going to put a safe injecting room 50 metres around the corner from it?

“It will change the way people use the city from Flinders Street. They won’t go down that part of the street anymore.”

Press PLAY below to hear why Mr Hill says an injecting room on Flinders Street would be a ‘nail in the coffin’ for the area

Image: Google Maps