Teachers West Rugby Club struck by graffiti vandals on three walls and infrastructure
Another Townsville sporting clubhouse has been struck by criminals, this time armed with spray paint. See pics of the damage and how the community helped another crime-impacted club.
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Heartless vandals have gone on a graffiti rampage on the exterior of Teachers West Rugby Union clubhouse, forcing “frustrated” volunteers to be diverted for a clean-up operation.
In a post to social media on Saturday morning, the club based at Warrina Park on Cambridge St, Currajong, shared several images of graffiti damage to walls, signage and surrounding infrastructure, which occurred between Friday night and Saturday morning.
“We would like to thank the community who have alerted us immediately,” the club said.
“We are currently working out the best way to fix this before next week’s home game, so please keep a look out for any announcements in the near future.”
After seeing the damage first-hand, Teachers West Rugby Club’s President Patrick Brennan said his first feeling was “dread”.
“We’ve got home games next week, so we’ve been busy making a list of all the things we need to do in preparation for it … and when I saw it, it probably was just dread of another whole job that someone needs to do before next week.
“(We’re) concerned it’s going to become a target now, because we don’t have any employees, so every time the clubhouse gets tagged, it’s always a volunteer who has to scrub it off or repaint it.
“I’m frustrated and angry that there’s no real way to stop it … I’m almost defeated by it at this stage.”
While there hadn’t been vandalism on this scale in the last five years, he said volunteers had been forced to remove smaller tags from the building at least a dozen times.
“These sort of community buildings are such easy targets, because they’re mainly run by volunteers and they’re not occupied all the time,” he said.
“I really hope we can find a way to protect them a bit better.”
Queensland Police are “aware of the matter and making enquiries”.
Meanwhile, Townsville’s business community has come to the aid of another crime-impacted club – MA Olympic Football Club – which had two ride-on lawnmowers stolen last weekend.
In a post to social media, the club thanked Ausfield Services, Get Mowed, Your Mate with a Mower, and Grasswork Lawn Care for giving up their time to mow the club’s fields for training and preparation for the weekends fixtures.
“We have been inundated with so many offers of support, the local community has been amazing and we are very grateful and appreciative to have so many wonderful humans wanting to support our club,” MA Olympic said.
“These guys wanted absolutely nothing in return, not even a shout out, but we definitely want everyone to know who these amazing people are and show our appreciation.
“Please spread the word and support these businesses for all your lawn mowing needs.”
Police confirmed that the stolen mowers were yet to be located and investigations were continuing.
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Originally published as Teachers West Rugby Club struck by graffiti vandals on three walls and infrastructure
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