John and his family had been long term residents of the Forest area living in Killarney Height before they moved to the Blue Mountains initially to Glenbrook then to Blaxland.
John has been a member of the Scouting movement for 62 years. In this context he has participated in and managed many community improvement programs, the latest of which is this Graffiti Removal Project. He has a deep and abiding hatred of graffiti and litter.
He began by removing graffiti in the forest area including Killarney Heights, Frenchs Forest and Belrose. When he moved to the Blue Mountains he found a situation where the spread of graffiti was widespread and uncontrolled in Glenbrook, Blaxland and other townships including Katoomba.
John’s team includes 7 other members, Initially Blaxland council encouraged his efforts by giving him $500 to get started with grey paint to overpaint the graffiti tags. Over time this assistance expanded to include a trailer, cleaning chemicals, (although most graffitists use water-based paints), & equipment to the tune of $5,000
Interestingly a single tag is sufficient to earn a graffitist a criminal record and potentially imprisonment. Over the life of the program John has been trying to avoid the application of such harsh sanctions, preferring that these be replaced by community service programs. These can range in duration from 60 to 400 hours
John gained the involvement of the Police who are required to issue Event Numbers to document and control instances of graffiti. It’s possible to report events using a triple zero number and giving a description of the participants.
At one stage John’s team worked with police to control the activities of the BK Gang (Blaxland Kids). The Gang’s offences expanded from graffiti to include property damage, assault and one instance of rape. 26 members ended up in jail
John has also become involved with the railways as there are numerous instances of graffiti damage along the railway lines, stations, infrastructure and rolling stock in the mountains. John has been given permission to work along railway lines to the extent that if someone reports the presence of members of his team on railway property, officials and police simply record it as an instance of the graffiti control team at work.
Peter Clark
0409 245 459
petereclark@aussiebroadband,com,au
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