Helensburgh & District News

July 2007 - Vol.17 No.6

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By Michelle Neathercote

A toilet block that was purpose built for people with disabilities and for elderly travelers to use when they visited Helensburgh, was recently ‘trashed’ by a graffiti gang, one of many buildings to be defaced as part of an on-going tagging binge in the area.
The special community facilities were built less than two years ago by Wollongong City Council and since their completion have had to be regularly repainted to cover the graffiti attacks. In the last ten months there has been approximately 30 reports to Council about graffiti damage in Helensburgh and it costs the Council nearly $500,000 every year to clean up the graffiti across Wollongong.
The Manager of the Helensburgh Swimming Pool, Robert Brookes said he was both saddened and disappointed to see a decent local facility being continually damaged in this way, especially when its one of the first things visitors to the area would see.
“Helensburgh is a good town with lots of nice people and families who get a lot of enjoyment from their swimming pool and the sports grounds and its a shame when they see these things being spoilt, especially when its probably by others who live in the same town,” said Robert.
He said he suspects that it is the same young criminals who are repeatedly responsible for this visual pollution, who “hang around the pool car park at night, under age drinking and leaving broken bottles and other garbage around that needs to be cleaned up the next day.”
“They’re usually big enough to get bored but not quite old enough to get out of town to have their ‘fun’ but the new skate ramps that have been built may help to keep them occupied,” Robert said.
“I don’t think I’m the only one who has an idea of who these individuals are and this reflects badly on the character of the place and the people who live here,” Robert said.

Bob Ridley, owner of Seaside Cleaning, an effective high water pressure system, says he gets an average of three requests a month from shop owners and small businesses to remove the ‘tagging’ from around the town.
He believes the people responsible may not be much older than 10 or 11 years old because the material is “not far up the wall, its boring and looks about as good as what a ten year old could do”.
He said there have also been a number of sightings and reports of kids of that age roaming the streets, usually early in the morning at about 5am.
“Its a mindless act of vandalism that is costing the community so much money and there’s really no-one to blame but the people who are supposed to be responsible for their kids and how they behave,” Bob said.
“Either the parents of these kids don’t care what they do or they don’t think its their kid but don’t really want to find out either and can’t be bothered taking an interest in their lives.
“You can see the shame in people’s faces when they see me cleaning the stuff off - they have to look away – because its painful to have to acknowledge that locals have done this to their own town.
“The people of this town shouldn’t have to put up with this sort of garbage and they have a right to be asking parents if they know where their kids are and what they get up to,” he said.
Bob said he was aware of a number of others who cleaned up graffiti in their local areas as soon as it appeared. He encouraged others to join the ‘grass roots’ effort to send a strong and consistent message that locals won’t tolerate graffiti despoiling their communities.