Council uses listening devices to track ‘party houses’ in Mornington Peninsula

Mornington Peninsula Shire has used sound-monitoring gear to track noise levels and shut down so-called ‘party houses’ causing headaches for residents across the peninsula.

Caller Al, who lives in the area, told Neil Mitchell the council used sound monitoring gear to monitor noise levels at a short-term rental next door.

Al, who declined to use his real name, said there was a need for regulation of short-term rentals being used as party houses. 

He was told by the council to keep a noise diary, which they did for two years.

‘The noise went all night,’ he said.

Chief Financial Officer at the shire, Matt Green, said mostly the problem could be resolved if the council worked with the owner of the property.

He said they received on average one or two complaints for party houses a month.

‘It is literally a noise monitoring device that tracks the levels of sound particularly outside the hours stipulated in the residential noise guidelines and we use that as evidence for enforcement,’ he said.

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