The skate park upgrade was only completed in June and officially opened in July.
Photo by
Kelly Lucas-Carmody
Not even a month after it was officially opened, a local skate park has fallen victim to spray-can-wielding vandals.
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Works on the Tatura Skate Park were completed in June, before it was officially reopened on July 17.
More than $400,000 from the Australian Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program had been invested in the project to revitalise the 25-year-old facility, which had been deemed the most hazardous and in urgent need of repair in Greater Shepparton, following a Greater Shepparton City Council audit in 2022.
Now, more funds will be forked out to remove the graffiti.
Midland Ward councillor Rod Schubert said it was disappointing that people he “hoped were in the minority” had vandalised the facility.
“A lot of us did a lot of work making a lot of improvements to bring a modern and contemporary space to Tatura,” Cr Schubert said.
“It’s disgraceful that it’s been treated with disdain. I won’t call it graffiti, I’ll call it vandalism, which has made it look pretty ugly in my opinion.”
Tatura Skate Park was vandalised during the past week. Image: Facebook/Tatura Community Page.
Tatura residents took to social media with divided opinions about the graffiti.
One commenter said: “Every train everywhere is covered in graffiti and yet they still do what they were made for. It doesn’t affect the ramps, there’s no damage done. The only problem I see is the council will waste money cleaning it off. Why waste money on something that’s not damaged? It will happen again and again.”
Another suggested that others look into the psychology of the crime’s nature: “Not all kids feel welcome into such spaces. Do some research into how graffiti is an established and well-known precursor to other crime. Do some research into how graffiti left in place causes further degradation of public spaces and a lowering of standards into keeping spaces safe.”
Others suggested a street artist could be enlisted to professionally graffiti the park while running a clinic to involve local youth in creating the artwork.
Regardless of opposing stances, Cr Schubert said the fact remained that it was a council asset and would cost council money to restore, with its graffiti-removal team already called to action.
He said there was no money for lighting and cameras allowed in the project’s budget, so that was not an option for a solution to prevent further vandalism at this time.
Council urged anyone who witnessed the vandalism or had information that could help identify those responsible to contact Tatura police on 5824 3099.
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