Gympie shopkeeper shares shock over anti-vax stickers on Mary St

Protesters have angered shopkeepers after ‘extreme and distasteful’ images of swastikas and syringes were plastered in front of shops in the main street of a Queensland town.

Gympie’s Mary St has been targeted by anti-vaxxers who have plastered offensive stickers in front of a number of shops in the street, angering owners.

The stickers were described as a swastika next to a Covid vaccine needle, believed to be symbolic of a growing extremist movement against the Government’s response to Covid in the Gympie region.

Streetwise Hair hairdresser Jayde Maher raised the alarm about offensive stickers, after she discovered one on a bin outside the Mary St business on Monday.

Ms Maher said she was shocked at the sight of it.

“I just instantly felt my body drop,” she said.

She was so alarmed at the sight of the sticker, she attempted to remove it in a panic, but could not get it all off.

“I had a sleepless night that night because I didn’t know what else to do about it,” she said.

She said she found a second sticker outside Curves fitness centre further down the street, and immediately removed it.

A second offensive sticker was found outside Curves fitness centre on Mary St.

She did not contact the council or police over the matter, but took to Facebook to warn others of the stickers and asked anyone who saw them to remove them immediately.

Ms Maher said she thought the sticker s were linked to a radical anti-vax movement progressing through the Gympie region, demonstrated by two recent protests attacking the government’s response to the pandemic through lockdowns and vaccines.

She said she thought any anti-vax propaganda should be removed as it spread misinformation.

“Could they have produced anything else? It’s distasteful and it’s extreme,” she said.

An estimated 1000 people were drawn to a rally at Lake Alford Park in Gympie in July, in protest against lockdowns despite the region sitting outside the lockdown zone.

So-called freedom rally at Gympie’s Lake Alford on July 24, 2021.

A second rally was held outside Gympie’s town hall in August, where more than 100 protesters gathered in silence before marching to council offices on Mary St. Another rally is planned for Gympie later this month.