Goya Dmytryshchak
One of eight giant sculptures along a popular western suburbs trail has been cut at its base and rolled down an embankment in an act of “wilful destruction”.
The discovery last week along the Kororoit Creek Trail at Altona North comes amid reports of youth on trail bikes flouting stage three coronavirus restrictions and “terrorising”walkers.
Geoffrey Ricardo’s Spirits of Time and Place installation features eight monolithic sculptures over a two-kilometre trail along Toyota Way.
The Brooklyn-based sculptor was commissioned to do the work as a legacy of Toyota’s Altona manufacturing plant which closed in 2017.
The art trail was also to complement restoration work by Friends of Lower Kororoit Creek, led by president Geoff Mitchelmore, who planted the one millionth tree at the site to signal the completion of the Greening the West – 1 Million Trees Project.
Mr Mitchelmore and his wife, Olga, were walking along the creek this week when they saw that one of the artworks, titled Skygazer, had been removed.
“We found him [Skygazer] down near the creek and he’s been dragged out now,” Mr Mitchelmore said.
“Geoffrey’s got him back at the studio, repairing the damage … a cracked torso and cracked arm and cracked skull.
“But subsequent to that, we’ve had two more trees taken down in Brooklyn.
“Kids are going on a rampage and it’s just getting well and truly out of control here.”
Mr Mitchelmore said he suspected that youths on trail bikes who had been “blitzing the creek trails” may be behind the damage to the sculpture.
He said the riders were impacting on the safety of community members using the trail, as well as the environment.
“There was one woman who’s frightened to go back there now because she had a little child with her and she got terrorised by them coming down the path at high speed,” Mr Mitchelmore said.
“We’re absolutely devastated by the damage done, and having [the sculptures] been in place for something like four years without any interference, it’s just so sad.”
