Police have arrested two men two months after a rock face in north-east Victoria, considered a sacred Indigenous site, was vandalised with graffiti.
On May 12, Parks Victoria officers discovered that Paradise Falls in the King Valley had been spray-painted with a graffiti tag, sharing a photo of the damage.
The vandalism was discovered on May 12, 2025.Credit: Always Was, Always Will Be, Bpangerang Country/Facebook
“Paradise Falls is a sacred women’s place and much loved by all that visit. If you know who this tag belongs to let them know they need to return and clean up their mess,” the “Always Was, Always Will Be, Bpangerang Country” facebook page wrote on social media at the time.
Victoria Police said on Wednesday afternoon that officers had arrested a man in Melbourne’s CBD that morning. Police from Whitfield – the town nearest Paradise Falls – had charged the man, a 24-year-old from Rosebud, with criminal damage and charges against the Aboriginal Heritage Act (2006).
He has been bailed to face Wangaratta Magistrates Court in late September.
A second man, aged 25, from Hastings, was also arrested on Wednesday and is expected to be charged with the same offences.
“The damage was approximately 10 metres wide and two metres high,” police said.
“Specialist graffiti analysts from the Transit Divisional Response Unit assisted with the investigation.”
A spokesperson for the facebook page, who first raised the alarm about the alleged graffiti, said it had yet to be removed due to the police investigation.
“We’re overjoyed that the vandalism ... was taken seriously by authorities and that the [accused] were apprehended during NAIDOC Week,” the spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said.
“The community effort to uncover the [alleged] offenders was overwhelming and showed how much the site means to everyone in this area. This news will make a multitude of people very happy.
“Women’s places are where lore is taught and traditions passed from the older women to those becoming women. That’s why its desecration on Mother’s Day hurt our community even deeper.”
Paradise Falls falls within the Taungurung Land and Waters Council, the Registered Aboriginal party for the Alpine area of Victoria.
The criminal damage offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ prison.