Vandals desecrate World War I memorial on the northern beaches
Theft and damage was done to a northern beaches commemorative wall — opened by Margie Abbott — which included information explaining major battles where Australian diggers served.
Manly
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VANDALS have desecrated a World War I memorial on the northern beaches.
A sandstone wall with information explaining major battles where Australian diggers served in the conflict was damaged on the Anzac Memorial Pathway near Forestville RSL.
Thieves also made off with a metal bench that was installed along the pathway next to the Forestville War Memorial Playing Fields sometime over the weekend.
The pathway was opened in April 2015 by Margie Abbott, the wife of then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, to commemorate the centenary of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli and Australia’s involvement in the war.
Richard Gordon, the president of the club’s memorial playing fields committee, discovered the damage on Monday morning.
“I contacted the police immediately,” Mr Gordon said.
“They even took the bench seat. It was bolted into the concrete. They would have had to use tools to get it out of the ground.
“It’s probably sitting in someone’s backyard now. It would be worth a couple of thousand dollars.”
Two Quick Reference readers, which allow people to use their smartphones to read information about a particular battle or occasion, were also removed from a wall along the pathway.
The path includes plaques dedicated to battles at Gallipoli as well as Palestine and the Western Front.
Mr Gordon urged anyone who thinks they saw unusual activity along the path over the weekend to contact police.