Yes. I have lived in Carlton for over 10 years.

From the article, emphasis mine:

A council ban on drinking on the median strip in Canning Street, Carlton …

Nevertheless, Crossland said council staff had gone too far in banning drinking outright.

There is no prohibition on having a picnic in public spaces, unlike what the headline implies. There are council rules that say you can bring drinks to park spaces within certain hours as part of a picnic, and they’ve decided that the wide median strips in Carlton won’t be counted as park spaces for the purpose of that rule, because a minority of people have been getting drunk and disorderly, leaving smashed glass around etc.

You can still have a picnic, you can still buy lunch or a pastry from Brunetti or Filou’s and eat it on the huge median strips as people have for ages. The council has bench seats installed in many of them, they want people to use the community space. They are just reverting to a previously applied rule to ban alcohol. They are not banning “picnics”,. unless you consider picnics to require alcoholic drinks.