A new art installation at the V-Wall has been defaced before the general public even gets a chance to lay eyes on it.

Around 7am last Thursday morning, a council staffmember spotted two young men in hoodies, one with a goatee, exiting from the fenced-off section of the V-Wall that is currently being refurbished.

Upon inspection of the soon-to-be finished section, staff noticed several crude etchings scratched into the newly-laid pavement art which stretches along much of the length of the V-Wall towards Wellington Beach.

Council staff have said residents from the White Albatross Caravan Park have confirmed that the two men seen leaving the construction site are those responsible for the vandalism.

The lewdness of many of the graffiti scratchings is particularly disappointing given the artwork is a collaboration between local artists Chris Edwards and Heather Clarke (of Edwards Clarke Design) and kinder and year one students from Nambucca Heads Public School.

Chris and Heather workshopped with around 40 students from the red school who designed illustrations of sea creatures, 16 of which which were used in the footpath inlays.

The designs have been carved out of the pavement and filled in with a myriad of coloured illuminating epoxy resins.

“I wanted people to enjoy the V-Wall, to make it a bit more fun for families – kids can hop from circle to circle and follow the designs up the footpath,” Chris said.

Chris is now trying to minimise the etchings – likely caused by a star picket – by grinding over them with an abrasive disc.

“All of the council staff involved were disappointed about it. We are trying to do good quality work for the community and some rat bags out there want to wreck it,” Council’s manager of infrastructure services Matthew Leibrandt said.

“Chris Edwards was particularly disappointed about it because he’s put a lot into it from start to finish, including working with the kids to create the art.”

Chris Edwards grew up in the Valley, but relocated to Sydney about 20 years ago, where he worked as a public artist. He has now returned to the Nambucca.

“I wanted to bring something back to liven up my community,” he said.

“I wanted everyone to embrace the change, and when people go and destroy the work we’ve put in, it does hurt.

“I felt sad, not for myself, but for the children who have worked on this.

Mr Leibrandt said this hasn’t been the only issue with public interference during the project.

“This follows on from people entering the fenced off worksite after hours and walking over the fresh concrete leaving footmarks,” he said.

“After this we had to employ security to keep people out of the worksite while the concrete was curing.”

The vandalism has meant the project completion date for this section has been pushed back a week, but he said this hasn’t deterred staff from pushing ahead.

“We’ll keep trying, the few vandals that are out there won’t spoil things for the majority of us that would like to see our public places upgraded and improved,” he said.

“We will open up most of the long part of the V-Wall this week. Chris is doing a major artwork at the end of the wall and that area will be closed while he is working on it until he finishes. We will need to do the section between the new work and the car park after the Department of Lands moves a survey mark.” 

Works on the upgrades to the small section of the V-Wall started today and should take about a month.

Council is offering $5,000 to anyone who provides information to them that leads to a conviction.

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