Victorian safety camera earns more than $1500 an hour

A SINGLE road safety camera in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs has racked up more than $13 million in revenue last financial year.

The speed and red light camera, at the intersection of Warrigal Road and Batesford Road in the south-eastern suburb of Chadstone, covers three lanes of traffic.

Last financial year, the camera issued 56,550 infringement notices, reeling in $13,239,627 in revenue, figures from the Victorian Government show. And if you don't think the safety camera's $13 million earn is excessive, New South Wales raked in $19,729,115 - just a third more - from its entire network of fixed cameras in the previous financial year.

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The Victorian camera was the top earner across the state's entire safety camera network, and enough for it to claim the title as the most lucrative unit in Australia. To achieve that, the camera dished out an average of 154 fines a day, equivalent to a motorist being booked for either running a red light or speeding every 10 minutes.

Each time the camera nabbed an unsuspecting motorists, it netted an average of $234.

Victoria leads the country in safety camera revenue, with 1,458,109 infringement notices handed out across the state, generating more than $356 million for the state.

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That equates to a driver being nabbed about every 20 seconds, filling the state’s coffers at a rate of $1 million a day.

The lucrative Chadstone camera is located at an intersection adjoining a 40km/h school zone where the speed limit drops from 70km/h to 40km/h, catching out motorists who fail to observe the 30km/h reduction in the speed limit.

The highest earner in NSW from the 2014-15 financial year was located on the on the Eastern Distributor, Northbound, at Darlinghurst, fining drivers to the tune of $3,867,598.

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While Victoria and NSW both favour fixed cameras, South Australia relies heavily on mobile speed cameras. A single unit placed at Waverley Ridge Road in Crafers West earned $659,153 for the state’s piggy bank in 2015.

The Legacy Way Tunnel camera in Queensland infamously fined 100 motorists on its first day of operation, and was Queensland’s most prolific snapper, generating 36,092 fines in the 2014-15 financial year.