Calanna Park: Syringes, vandalism and knives at Woree soccer club

Syringes, smashed bottles and youths brandishing knives are becoming all-too-familiar at a Cairns junior sporting facility that has just undergone an overhaul worth about $500,000.

SYRINGES, smashed bottles and youths brandishing knives are becoming all-too-familiar at a Cairns junior sporting facility that has just undergone an overhaul worth about $500,000.

JCU Strikers FC volunteers are at their wits’ end after a string of vandalism and after-hours anti-social behaviour at their new $400,000 clubhouse at Calanna Park in Woree.

The facility also underwent a recent $85,000 lighting upgrade to allow night-time training and matches – neither of which can go ahead until a team of parents has done the daily emu parade to pick broken glass out of the turf.

The clubhouse has been broken into multiple times with used syringes left lying around and ugly motifs burnt into benchtops.

Coach Victor Neckebroeck said a volunteer was mowing the lawn recently when he noticed two teenage boys, about 17 years old, were spray-painting graffiti on the building’s walls and new roller doors.

“He went and asked what they were doing, why would you damage that when we’re all trying to help each other out,” Mr Neckebroeck said.

“They said they didn’t have any paint, so he said they probably had it in their bags.”

Mr Neckebroeck said the youths said they did not but they did have “this” and each pulled a knife from their backpacks.

JCU Strikers FC coach Victor Neckebroeck.

The volunteer was not attacked but the encounter, coupled with repeated vandalism, has the club wondering what its next move should be.

Mr Neckebroeck believed CCTV was necessary and potentially a barrier fence – although that would be expensive and only a last resort at any rate.

Either way, help will be required from local or state governments.

“We don’t want to go to the extreme of blocking it off. We want to keep it open and make it as user-friendly as possible for everybody,” he said.

“But the government has just invested a lot of money in this building extension and the lighting. I’m sure they want to protect their investment.”

Division 3 Cairns regional councillor Cathy Zeiger was looking into any grants for which the club might qualify but said there was a wider issue at play.

“It’s happening in all of our sporting precincts, not just Woree,” she said.

“These are community-based groups and everyone works their guts out to get what they’ve got, and this idiots are here burning it.

“There’s no respect.”

Originally published as Calanna Park: Syringes, vandalism and knives at Woree soccer club