Man Arrested After Bolte Bridge Standoff for 'Pam the Bird' Graffiti

Victoria police have arrested a man who allegedly scaled the top of a major inner-city bridge and painted the well-known Pam the Bird graffiti tag, before bringing traffic to a crawl.

The arrest came after an hours-long standoff with authorities, which began when emergency services were called to the Bolte Bridge about 3am on Tuesday after reports a man had climbed one of the bridge’s 120-metre-high pillars.

Police allege the man had abseiled down the pillar and painted a giant Pam the Bird tag, similar to those which have been illegally painted on Melbourne landmarks for years, often in difficult to reach places and on heritage-listed buildings.

A police spokesperson said the 22-year-old man came down from the tower at about 11am. No injuries were reported.

Police said the Yarraville man will interviewed by investigators.

The arrest came minutes after the man posted on Instagram that he would “be down at 12pm peacefully”, adding that he was “just waiting for the tide to get a little bit lower”.

A police spokesperson had earlier alleged that the man had refused “to follow [a] police direction” to climb down..

“A significant number of police resources were deployed to the location including uniform members, highway patrol officers, Critical Incident Response Team,” a spokesperson said.

Police said the incident posed no threat to the public or road users and one lane of the bridge was closed.

Just after 9am, the man abseiled down the pillar, waved to police and media below, before returning to the top.

The speed limit for motorists crossing the bridge had been reduced to 40km/h during the standoff.

An Instagram page, @pambirdofficial, has shared videos that appear to have been filmed from the top of the pillar on Tuesday with the hashtag #notcomingdown.

In one video, a caption says: “Lower the taxes and drone me some fucken food! Let’s go boys and girls!”

In the same video, a man’s voice says: “I’m not coming down until they lower the taxes. Fucking sick of paying that shit.”

Another video shows feet dangling off the tower and zooms in on a large police presence down below before the man “flips the bird” to officers down below. Later, he added a request for a blanket.

Melbourne’s temperature dropped to 4C on Tuesday morning as fog covered the top of the pillar where the man had been sitting.