Noticed a camera on your drive that you do not recognise? There is a fair chance it is part of a road safety camera trial, and right now it cannot send you a fine.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety is trialling new mobile road safety camera technology across 30 Victorian suburbs and towns from July 2026 through to September 2026. The department says the trial is designed to test the effectiveness and accuracy of new technologies and improve the existing mobile speed camera network.
Dylan Anderson
Where the new road safety cameras are being trialled
The 30 trial locations are Bacchus Marsh, Bangholme, Bannockburn, Bayswater, Berwick, Caulfield South, Coldstream, Dandenong, Doncaster, Donvale, Geelong, Glenroy, Greenvale, Hughesdale, Huntingdale, Keilor Downs, Koo Wee Rup, Lang Lang, Lara, Lethbridge, Moorabool, Myrniong, Notting Hill, Ormond, Sunshine, Truganina, Wallace, Wallan, Wantirna and Winchelsea.
That list covers a wide spread of the state, from inner south east suburbs like Ormond and Hughesdale out to Geelong, the Bacchus Marsh area and small towns along the Princes Highway.
The technology being tested is similar to what already runs in Victoria's mobile digital road safety cameras, which catch speeding, and the distracted driver and seatbelt detection cameras, which catch mobile phone and seatbelt offences. The units may be mounted on trailers or other infrastructure such as moveable bases, poles and gantries, so they can look quite different to the unmarked camera cars drivers are used to. The department says they will only detect offences that already exist in Victoria's road rules.
Can the trial cameras fine you?
No. The department confirms the new mobile cameras being assessed will not issue fines during the trial.
There is a catch. Victoria Police continues to patrol the trial areas as part of normal road policing, targeting speeding, seatbelt misuse and distracted driving. The trial camera will not post you a fine. The officer parked up the road still can.
Current Victorian penalties, as at 1 July 2026, sit at $627 and four demerit points for using a portable device like a mobile phone, $418 and three demerit points for not wearing a seatbelt correctly, and $261 and one demerit point for speeding by less than 10 km/h.
What Victoria is spending on camera technology
The trial follows a separate announcement in May, when the Victorian Government committed $28.3 million to five new road safety camera programs funded by the Transport Accident Commission. That package includes Victoria's first all in one camera unit able to detect speeding, mobile phone use and seatbelt offences, plus new mobile trailer technology.
Announcing that funding, Minister for Roads and Road Safety Ros Spence said: "Speeding, distraction and failing to wear a seatbelt continue to put lives at risk on our roads."
The Victorian Road Safety Strategy 2021 to 2030 commits to halving road deaths by 2030 and eliminating them by 2050. As at 18 May 2026, the TAC reported 100 lives lost on Victorian roads for the year, down from 116 at the same point in 2025.
Source: Victorian Government
Dylan Anderson
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