Australia fast-tracks machete ban after shopping centre attackIt will be illegal to sell machetes in Victoria from Wednesday (file)Two boys, aged 16 and 15, were on Sunday charged with affray, intentionally causing injury, and possession and use of a controlled weapon. The ban - to start in Victoria this Wednesday, instead of September - comes after two gangs attacked each other at Northland shopping centre in Preston on Sunday afternoon. A fight involving machetes at a Melbourne shopping centre has prompted an Australian state to fast-track the country's first-ever ban on the weapon's sale. The ban covers machetes, which are broadly defined as "knives with a cutting blade longer than 20cm". A three-month amnesty from September means anyone with a machete can place them in specially designated boxes at police stations.