Graffiti vandals have struck again, this time defacing the Boer War Memorial in Castlemaine’s Mostyn Street.
Just weeks out from Remembrance Day, the historic war memorial has been hit with glaring green paint.
It appears to be just part of a wider trail of graffiti between the memorial, that’s situated toward the Kennedy Street end of Mostyn Steet, and the Forest Street railway overpass around the corner.
And the content of the painted words – a rant against vegans – appears to link the vandalism of the war memorial with the latest graffiti addition to the overpass.
On Friday Castlemaine police told the Express they were looking into it.
“We have several different reports of different graffiti around the place,” Sergeant Kim Garsed said.
Local anti-graffiti campaigner Bill Wiglesworth said he had taken action in an attempt to see the mess on the overpass cleaned up – but was unaware of the latest attack on the war memorial.
“I spoke with VicTrack this morning, my fourth call in the past four months,” Mr Wiglesworth said.
“All of the previous calls had resulted in promises to get back to me with a plan to deal with the graffiti. Got no call backs.
“So, this morning I got a more earnest, more serious reaction.
“We now are a ‘priority case’ with a new case number, and if I don’t get a satisfactory response by next Wednesday, the case will be moved up to the ombudsman.”
Mr Wiglesworth suggested CCTV cameras may help protect local assets like the war memorial and public buildings in the town’s CBD.
“Earlier this year I suggested the council might consider putting in some more CCTV cameras which would help catch these people. They’re pretty brazen,” he said.
“The war memorial incident would certainly add a bit of impetus to move in that direction.”
