Idle wagons make light work for vandals

NORTH GEELONG’S shunting yards have become graffiti central, with lurid spray can images vandalising dozens of freight carriages.
The yards, accessible to pedestrians from Separation St and Melbourne Rd, make the carriages sitting ducks for graffiti vandals.
Similar graffiti vandalism is emblazoned across an abandoned power station nearby.
Pacific National used the carriages for fertiliser transport but has decommissioned them at Geelong.
The Independent was unable to determine whether the company intended salvaging or scrapping the carriages.
They are splashed with metre-high-plus lettering, signature tags, caricatures, drug references and cartoon figures.
The age of the graffiti and location of its creation was unclear but dates of 2012 were among the images, suggesting the vandalism was carried out in Geelong.
Geelong MP Ian Trezise said the graffiti could pose a safety threat because of the potential to reduce visibility of carriages as they moved through open-level crossings.
“It might sound maybe a long bow to draw but the visibility of trains going over country rail crossings and carriages compromised by graffiti must be some form of safety concern to Pacific National” he said.