By ALESHA CAPONE
SUNSHINE resident Garry Collins has expressed anger at vandals who have damaged and graffitied a heritage-listed garden on Anderson Rd.
Mr Collins said a group of people, who had been gathering at the HV McKay Memorial Gardens to drink alcohol, had shown no respect for the area.
Industrialist Hugo Victor McKay established the gardens for his workers in 1909, and they are listed on the Victorian Heritage Database, for being the earliest example of an industrial garden in the state.
Last week, Mr Collins said “someone has got to do something” about the state of the gardens, where items including paths, trees, lamp posts, a water-tank, signs, bins and seats have been sprayed with graffiti.
Panels depicting the history of the gardens and Sunshine have also been covered in graffiti.
The unknown offenders have also set fire to bins, lit camp-fires, smashed lights and left liquor bottles strewn across the park.
Last Tuesday, Mr Collins said Brimbank City Council needed to wait for the graffiti to dry properly before they could clean it off.
“A lot of time has been put into these gardens by the Brimbank City Council and the Friends of the McKay Gardens,” Mr Collins, a member of the group, said.
“The same gang seems hell-bent on destroying all the man-made structures.
“It’s breaking everyone down.
“Obviously, it’s a problem in the area and I’ve been told by women that they are too scared to come through here.
“Magistrates don’t seem to give graffitists much of a sentence when they are caught. They should be made to clean it up.”
Brimbank Police Inspector Chris Gilbert said a crackdown, including increased patrols, on people drinking alcohol in the Sunshine CBD’s public places would incorporate the HV McKay Memorial Gardens.
Insp Gilbert said police also would focus on graffiti offenders and people caught carrying street vandalism implements, such as spray cans.
“There is nothing artistic or attractive about it, it is just rubbish,” he said.
“If anyone’s caught down there committing graffiti, they will be caught and prosecuted for committing property damage.”
