By Jed Lanyon
Upper Yarra SES has been targeted by vandals, who continue to tag the property of the emergency service in Wesburn with obscene images.
Upper Yarra SES members are fed up with having to waste their community based funds on cleaning graffiti, when it could be put to better use within the SES.
Unit Controller Michael Young told the Mail that the Wesburn property is the targeted by vandals every few months.
“It’s very disappointing. Our members take pride in what they do to help out in the community. For someone to come along and vandalise it, it’s a kick in the guts,” he said.
“It’s hard. We obviously have other things we could be purchasing to help the community out, like specialist equipment. But some of that will have to wait until we fix up this problem first.
“We were broken into last year. They nicked a portable radio. The other dramas we have are hoons doing burnouts on the helipad and the grass around it.
“I just think it’s the location. It’s dark and when it’s late there isn’t much traffic on the highway so it’s an easy opportunity.”
The sheds of Upper Yarra SES feature slightly different shades of green having been painted over on numerous occasions.
Mr Young said that the entire shed received a fresh coat of paint around two years ago, thanks to a government grant. But it took less than four weeks before vandals tagged the large green walls.
Currently, vandals are crossing out rival taggers’ graffiti, creating more of a mess. Warburton Police sergeant Tom Wilkinson told the Mail that they are currently investigating the issue.
“It attacks the very principles we’ve got. The SES is trying to make a difference and support our community,” he said.
Mr Wilkinson said that Warburton Police were compiling a database of offenders based on their tags and urges those who recognise the graffiti to contact police.
“Parents know what their kids tag looks like. They leave it all over the bloody joint.”
Anyone with information regarding the offence is urged to contact Warburton Police on 5966 2006.
