Dry creek, Morphett Vale, Christie Downs among worst suburbs for graffiti vandals
New data shows which suburbs continue to be defaced by mindless vandalism but the figures also show anti-graffiti efforts are really starting to clean up our streets.
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Dry creek, Morphett Vale and Christie Downs are among the three most graffiti-riddled suburbs in Adelaide, new data reveals, but overall offences have dropped by 10 per cent.
Analysis of SA Police data by The Advertiser shows, other than the CBD, Dry Creek topped the list of locations for people charged with tagging property in the 2019/20 financial year.
There were 119 reported offences in the CBD. Dry Creek, which is mostly an industrial suburb with a large rail yard, had the next highest with 58.
Morphett Vale, one of the state’s largest suburbs, was third with 43 reported graffiti offences, followed by Christie Downs (42), Christies Beach (25) and South Brighton (25).
Crime data shows, however, that overall graffiti offences were down by 10 per cent across SA. Between August 2019 and July 20, there were 1595 people charged with graffiti – down from 1763 during the previous 12 months.
The new data comes as the Adelaide City Council confirmed the standard response time to clean up general graffiti increased from 14 days to between 45 and 50 days.
Its public realm associate director, Gary Herdegen, said a crew was continuing to respond to offensive or politically themed graffiti within 24 hours. But general graffiti was taking weeks to get removed.
“Due to the impacts of COVID on resources, the response times and work schedules were revised,” he said.
Mr Herdegen said council staff were working “as best they can to remove graffiti in a timely manner”.
The most recent urgent response to graffiti was the vandalisation of Rundle Mall’s four bronze pigs – Horatio, Oliver, Augusta and Truffles – which were sprayed with corrosive paint last month. A 65-year-old man has been arrested over the attack and bailed to appear in court next January.
In another recent case, Goodwood grandmother Mary Kolusniewski, 74, was charged with vandalising Unley Council street signs for months.
She was arrested in August and charged with five counts of property damage over alleged incidents on Weller Street. She claimed painting “WTF!” on street signs was a form of “activism”, not vandalism.
Crime stats also showed overall arson offences decreased by 14 per cent.
There were 1184 offences categorised as “property damage by fire or explosion” between August 2019 and July 2020 – down from 1374 in the previous 12-month period.
Morphett Vale had the most arson offences on 39.