Melbourne graffiti artist arrested after Bolte Bridge pylon climb

Police describe it as a “distinct cartoon bird” – the often brightly coloured, childlike design known as Pam allegedly graffitied on Melbourne landmarks by Jack Gibson-Burrell.

The most recent Pam the Bird could be the boldest yet.

Gibson-Burrell allegedly forced his way into a door on the base of a 120-metre pylon on the Bolte Bridge, climbed an internal staircase to the top, and then abseiled down the side to paint a white bird, its orange and green beak pointed towards the Yarra River below.

He was arrested at the base of the bridge several hours later on Tuesday morning, after a considerable police response and traffic delays.

Gibson-Burrell, 22, is on bail for more than 200 other offences, the majority of them relating to other incidents of alleged criminal damage involving graffiti. Earlier this year, he pleaded not guilty to the offences in the magistrates court, and is set to face trial in the county court.

While the prominent birds such as those painted on the Bolte Bridge have thrust Pam into the spotlight, it is their sheer number that has also drawn the attention of Melburnians.

Those Pams on other almost impossible sites - the Flinders Street clock tower, the 70m yellow steel oblong known as the “cheese stick”, the golden facade of the Novotel South Wharf, on the Nine building after The Age wrote about the graffiti - are cleaned off within days, if not hours.

But other Pams are everywhere, particularly in the city’s west.

There’s the large Pam on the heritage Uncle Toby’s building in West Footscray, allegedly painted by Gibson-Burrell more than two years ago.

Another smaller Pam stands sentinel overlooking almost the very spot in Seddon where he was arrested in early 2025.

Many people, though, will have their own Pam that they see most days - on their commute into the city, peering at them from outside their train window; through their windscreen, perched on a rail bridge, on their drive home.

Inevitably the explosion of Pams since about 2023 has sparked discussion about whether such works are art or vandalism.

There is no such debate among those within Melbourne’s world-renowned graffiti scene - for those who spray images or tags like Pam the Bird, the vandalism is the point; it is valued because it is illicit.

Many of Gibson-Burrell’s alleged offences relate to damage to trains, rail stations or sidings - the original target of most graffiti crews.

One Melbourne veteran of such a crew told Guardian Australia that the Pam the Bird graffiti artist was a product of this culture, but also moved beyond it towards an emerging form of graffiti that valued taking even greater risks.

This was no small thing: the existing crews regularly break into rail sidings, surf trains in tunnels, and flee across tracks from police and train authorities - activities dangerous enough in themselves that multiple people have died in Melbourne while committing them, including from electrocution, being hit by moving trains, or falling from or striking items while riding them.

Pam the Bird was controversial within these crews, the veteran said: appearing not to value private property as much as those grounded in the spirit of 1990s graffiti culture.

“I always had a strict rule of never doing someone’s property, knowing of course that trains are not our property,” the veteran said.

The public outcry about the work was hypocritical though, the veteran said.

“The government promotes graffiti and places like Hosier Lane for tourism, but then wants to put you in jail for the other half,” he said.

The two are inextricably intertwined, he argues: it would be like banning community footy while continuing to support the AFL.

Pam the Bird has also gained prominence through the use of social media.

The graffiti veteran said that in this way the work appeared similar to other crews he was more familiar with.

Some of this social media material is set to be used in court cases against Gibson-Burrell, who is accused of causing more than $700,000 damage.

On Tuesday morning, a newly created Instagram account, @pambirdofficial, shared video stories appearing to be from Gibson-Burrell at the top of the pillar with the hashtag #notcomingdown.

In one 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.

Gibson-Burrell is yet to be charged in relation to the Bolte Bridge incident. He is set to face the county court on his existing charges on 20 July.

Achol Arok and Australian Associated Press contributed to this report