Not so long ago, Redcliffe experienced the destruction of 65 bus shelters by vandals, who shot at them with ball bearings fired from a slingshot-like device. If this prompted you to think that such wanton damage was the manifestation of declining standards and/or the degeneracy of modern times, you would be wrong. Vandalism is an age-old problem that Redcliffe has been dealing with since its earliest days.
As far back as 1910, when the peninsula was sparsely populated, it was reported that a large number of unoccupied furnished houses – “left to the tender mercies of hooligans”, as the Brisbane Courier put it – had been broken into and vandalised with contents damaged beyond repair.
More often than private property, though, public facilities were a favoured target of vandals. The council fielded many complaints about the “abuse of public sanitary conveniences”, with one especially egregious incident occurring in 1938 when pipes, pedestals and showers in the Redcliffe beach public toilets were damaged.
Another grievance was the misuse of Council-provided fresh-water tanks. In 1930, a man was reported for climbing on top of a tank where he “washed out his bathing togs” and it was not uncommon to see women “washing the salt out of their hair…and leaving the taps running”.
Residents living close to beaches decried the activities of “one-day campers” who despoiled their property, hurling refuse over their fences, the said fences repeatedly torn up and the palings used for campfires or as makeshift cricket bats. Worse, according to these complainants, was the “immodest behaviour carried out in full public view” but that’s possibly another story.
Plant life seemed particularly attractive to vandals. Very shocking to the post-First World War generation was the damage and theft to which the memorial trees of Anzac Avenue repeatedly fell victim – young trees being broken and their protective wire cages removed; and no more respected was the “sanctity of the schoolmaster’s residence” from which plants and trees were uprooted and stolen.
Who was perpetrating these outrages? Predictably, residents accused “holiday people”, citing the “destructive tendencies, sheer vandalism and downright thievish habits of a number of visitors”, and decrying, especially, motorists (often a convenient scapegoat). It was they who raced their cars along beaches, endangering beachgoers and tearing up the sand. Indeed, one such party, after becoming bogged, tore up a council seat and some nearby fence posts to provide the means for extricating themselves.
Detection and deterrence methods may differ: CCTV in the modern era versus vigilant residents earlier, but vandals, it seems, will always be with us.
[With thanks to City of Moreton Bay.]
Featured image: Anzac Avenue ca 1920. Young trees and wire cages were often vandalised. Image courtesy of City of Moreton Bay: reference number RLPC-000\000632
Read more stories from our Redcliffe Guide print magazine here:
- Reddy Roundup: Updates from the Community
- What’s Hot Around Town
- Listen Up with Ash McGregor Podcast Review
- A Brief Affair
- The Magic of Jim Henson Comes to Brisbane
- Organic Gardening in September
- Fresh Start: The Budget-Friendly Way to Spring Clean
- Brad’s New Book Sets the Pace for Business Success
- Dementia Friendly Gardens to Delight the Senses
- Celebrating 150 Years of Humpybong State School
- KiteFest Set to Burst with Colour
- Homemade Lasagnas Offer Support to Local Families
- Doris Inspires Through Her Story
- Redcliffe Ninja Warrior on World Stage
- Picnic Hill Returns with a Celebration of Community Connection
- Redcliffe Set for World Premiere of New Aussie Musical
- Remarkable Reptiles on Show
- Rick Price Returns to Scarborough for Acoustic Show
- First Nations Student Commission Success
- Motown Magic Returns with The Big Chill Spectacular
- The Walk Arcade: Where History, Heart, and Local Creativity Meet
- Broken Glass, Beautiful Wearable Art
