By Jenel Hunt
Morning walkers were rudely jolted out of their peaceful meanderings at the Stanthorpe creek walking track on Tuesday January 31 when they came across offensive graffiti on the concrete pathways and on the arch of the pedestrian bridge near the dog leash-free area at Connor Street.
One walker, who did not want to be named, said she was disgusted by it.
“Some graffiti is art. This isn’t. It’s disgusting, offensive and a considerable expense to get it cleaned up. There are legitimate avenues for making a complaint – and using black paint on a footpath is not one of them,” she said.
The spray-painted messages looked very targetted, with the unpleasant wording including the word ‘police’, a personal name and a paedophilic slur.
Southern Downs Regional Council Parks and Gardens staff were there in force to get the mess cleaned up as quickly as possible, but it wasn’t a particularly easy job. The two messages had been written over a number of metres on the paths and workers had to bring in a high pressure water cleaner on a trailer to use both spray nozzle and a rotary brush on the concrete while the steel on the bridge arch was attacked with methylated spirits, rags and elbow grease.
