Somewhere in the leafy streets of Mount Lawley, dozens of wheelie bins have vanished from front verges, and a satellite photo may hold the answer to where they have all gone.
Residents of the affluent Perth suburb have spent recent weeks reporting missing bins, only for a startling aerial image to surface showing a backyard on William Street crammed with what looks like a sea of green and yellow lids. The collection is large enough to show up clearly from space, with dozens of bins packed across a sizeable stretch of the property.
The find has set local Facebook groups alight, with one resident posting anonymously to describe a frightening run-in. The resident said a woman had entered their property and tried to take a bin, an encounter that upset their young children and left them asking who could step in.
“Is there a family member who can help her?” the resident wrote. “She obviously needs some support to stop entering into people’s homes and taking bins.”
That post has only deepened the puzzle for neighbours, who now want to know whether their own missing bins ended up in the William Street yard, and whether the alleged bin-taker is connected to the pile at all.
The City of Vincent, which covers Mount Lawley, said it was aware of the concern rippling through the community but stopped short of naming names. Chief executive David MacLennan told PerthNow the council could not comment on individual properties or possible compliance matters involving residents, and urged anyone missing a bin to report it through the council website.
Mr MacLennan added that commercial bins are a different matter altogether, managed by private waste contractors rather than the council, so businesses missing bins should go straight to their provider.
WA Police have confirmed the matter is under investigation, though no charges have been laid and no formal link has been drawn between the bin collection and the reported disappearances.
For now, the mystery sits unresolved: nobody can say how many bins have gone missing across the suburb, how such an enormous collection came together, or whether the woman described in the Facebook post has any connection to the pile captured from above.
Residents who suspect their own bin has joined the collection are being encouraged to report it to both the City of Vincent and WA Police, leaving Mount Lawley to wait and see whether the full story ever comes out from behind that William Street fence.
