Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

NSW & ACT specific bushwalking discussion.
Forum rules
NSW & ACT specific bushwalking discussion. Please avoid publishing details of access to sensitive areas with no tracks.

Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby FatCanyoner » Tue 12 Jul, 2022 1:06 pm

This occurred a couple months ago, but I thought it was worth sharing so others can avoid a similar experience.

Over the Anzac Day long weekend, I did a three day bushwalk up on the Wolgan-Capertee Divide with a friend. We had parked our car off to the side of the Wolgan Road, about 500m west of the Emirates resort (location marked here: https://maps.ozultimate.com/?id=1657594151706). We used a road reserve just to the north of this spot to gain access to Wollemi NP. When we got back to the car, it had been vandalised. I first saw the damage to the rear tail-light and thought someone had come off the road and sideswiped me. A closer look confirmed it was actually a deliberate attack. Looking closely, you can make out boot-prints where someone kicked in the lights and every panel down the side of the car. They'd deliberately caused thousands of dollars of malicious damage.

This is a highly visible location, so it was a pretty brazen attack. There's no way of knowing who did it, or why, but I have a couple theories. It may have been due to the "Give a Dam" sticker on the back. Perhaps some drunk bogan on the way back from Newnes. Or maybe -- and this is the one I think is most likely -- a local landowner who took offence at bushwalkers heading through what they consider their land (despite it being a public road reserve) decided to exact their revenge.

Regardless of the motive, it's definitely worth being a little careful where you park along the Wolgan Road. In our case, it's a crappy old run-about car, so all we needed to fix is the rear light, but it would be more than $6,000 if we wanted to repair every panel they damaged. Pretty extraordinary behaviour from a pretty awful human being.

Photos of the damage:

20220425_154201.jpg


20220425_154130.jpg


20220425_154144.jpg


20220425_155009.jpg


The clearest boot print. There's no question someone deliberately walked along the side, kicking each panel in as they went.
User avatar
FatCanyoner
Athrotaxis selaginoides
Athrotaxis selaginoides
 
Posts: 1048
Joined: Fri 12 Aug, 2011 7:45 pm
Location: Blue Mountains
ASSOCIATED ORGANISATIONS: www.FatCanyoners.org www.CanyonGear.com.au
Region: New South Wales
Gender: Male

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby north-north-west » Tue 12 Jul, 2022 1:20 pm

This has always been happening during environmental disputes, whether it's dams, mining, logging, whatever. That would be my first thought.

Some people are just jerks.
"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."
User avatar
north-north-west
Lagarostrobos franklinii
Lagarostrobos franklinii
 
Posts: 15069
Joined: Thu 14 May, 2009 7:36 pm
Location: The Asylum
ASSOCIATED ORGANISATIONS: Social Misfits Anonymous
Region: Tasmania

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby johnw » Tue 12 Jul, 2022 2:39 pm

This makes my blood boil Tim. Cowardly moron/s regardless of their criminal motives. I hope you reported it to police.
I'm thinking it might be time to invest in good vehicle security cameras or maybe a hidden wildlife camera close by.
John W

In Nature's keeping they are safe, but through the agency of man destruction is making rapid progress - John Muir c1912
User avatar
johnw
Lagarostrobos franklinii
Lagarostrobos franklinii
 
Posts: 8985
Joined: Wed 23 Jan, 2008 11:59 am
Location: Macarthur Region - SW Sydney
Region: New South Wales
Gender: Male

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby sandym » Tue 12 Jul, 2022 3:41 pm

Terrible. Newnes does seem to attract a thuggish crowd particularly over long weekends so could be just a random bogan operating under the influence of a skinful.
sandym
Phyllocladus aspleniifolius
Phyllocladus aspleniifolius
 
Posts: 511
Joined: Wed 19 Sep, 2012 7:34 pm
Region: New South Wales
Gender: Female

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby CBee » Tue 12 Jul, 2022 4:13 pm

north-north-west wrote:This has always been happening during environmental disputes, whether it's dams, mining, logging, whatever. That would be my first thought.

Some people are just jerks.

Vandalism happens for virtually any reason not only environmental disputes. If you can call them "reasons". I had my car vandalised twice because I was parking in front of a house to go and pick up my daughter from school.
CBee
Phyllocladus aspleniifolius
Phyllocladus aspleniifolius
 
Posts: 510
Joined: Fri 21 Dec, 2018 7:18 am
Region: Queensland

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby FatCanyoner » Tue 12 Jul, 2022 4:33 pm

johnw wrote:I'm thinking it might be time to invest in good vehicle security cameras or maybe a hidden wildlife camera close by.


Given my suspicion that it may be a local landowner, there was part of me that was thinking I might do exactly that. It would be great to catch the perpetrator in the act. You'd only need to catch one person, and have the subsequently prosecuted by police, and it would pretty much stamp out any similar behaviour.
User avatar
FatCanyoner
Athrotaxis selaginoides
Athrotaxis selaginoides
 
Posts: 1048
Joined: Fri 12 Aug, 2011 7:45 pm
Location: Blue Mountains
ASSOCIATED ORGANISATIONS: www.FatCanyoners.org www.CanyonGear.com.au
Region: New South Wales
Gender: Male

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby ribuck » Tue 12 Jul, 2022 4:40 pm

Many dashcams have a motion sensor that will start recording if the car is bumped while it is parked.
User avatar
ribuck
Athrotaxis selaginoides
Athrotaxis selaginoides
 
Posts: 1883
Joined: Wed 15 May, 2013 3:47 am
Region: Other Country
Gender: Male

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby Avatar » Tue 12 Jul, 2022 5:28 pm

I doubt long-term landowners would do that unless they are dodgy blow ins. Landowners know they have assets that can be seized by courts and they are fixed targets for fines and their local reputation which counts for more than anything. Bogans needlessly ruining someone else's day. Probably don't have any assets or money, so no point in taking to court for recovery, and with juvenile records and bearing a grudge against anyone. Get insured and flip the bird.
User avatar
Avatar
Athrotaxis cupressoides
Athrotaxis cupressoides
 
Posts: 279
Joined: Sun 07 Jul, 2013 5:21 pm
Location: NE Melbourne
Region: Victoria

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby ChrisJHC » Tue 12 Jul, 2022 7:16 pm

Sounds more like #$%^hole being #$%^holes rather than issue-motivated.
ChrisJHC
Phyllocladus aspleniifolius
Phyllocladus aspleniifolius
 
Posts: 783
Joined: Sat 25 Feb, 2017 8:22 pm
Region: Victoria
Gender: Male

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby puredingo » Wed 13 Jul, 2022 9:22 am

Agree with Chris, people on the way home from pubs, drunk/drugged bored kids out cruising would be my guess. Politically motivated; for such a little sticker in such a remote place…kinda chancey.

Now to be totally sure just swipe one boot from each neighbouring property and look for the match and you’ll have Tracey Grimshore barging down half ajar doors in no time.

And for the record I know plenty of honest, respectful bogans who wouldn’t dream of condoning such behaviour…
puredingo
Athrotaxis selaginoides
Athrotaxis selaginoides
 
Posts: 1267
Joined: Mon 13 Feb, 2012 6:54 am
Region: New South Wales

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby Nuts » Wed 13 Jul, 2022 9:51 am

A dunny plunger and a heat gun would probably pop that door dent out.
(just to offer a bogan pov)
User avatar
Nuts
Lagarostrobos franklinii
Lagarostrobos franklinii
 
Posts: 8632
Joined: Sat 05 Apr, 2008 12:22 pm
Region: Tasmania

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby Biggles » Wed 13 Jul, 2022 4:04 pm

If it was a Tesla, the car would have recorded everything going on, right from the time the mongrel approached the car.
I think leaving a car in an isolated spot, roadside is a bad idea — and I see it very frequently! Being the owner of a $100k-plus car, I don't leave it anywhere chancey like this, ever. And especially I do not put any suggestive stickers on the window that could invite trouble. It is fine to have an opinion, but it will often rub antsy people up the wrong way — and badly to the point of revenge, if they are provoked by alt-messages. I recall yesterday thousands of cars were vandalised in Tasmania, and all were plastered with NO DAMS and SAVE THE TARKINE, among others, parked at Arthur River and Temma. They wondered why they were targeted, but it aint rocket science.

Cars have been prolifically vandalised at a particular hotspot on the Franklin River in Tassie, and those specifically adorned with political/activist stickers are usually the ones that cop the brunt of malicious damage — not once, but several times. Takeaway is park your car where there are others, and in a populated place where traffic comes and goes — that alone is a deterrent to some extent; would it have been possible to have parked at the Emirates Resort?
Last edited by Biggles on Wed 13 Jul, 2022 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“Is é comhrá faoin aimsir an tearmann deiridh ag an duine gan samhlaíocht.”
—Oscar Wilde, 1890.
User avatar
Biggles
Athrotaxis cupressoides
Athrotaxis cupressoides
 
Posts: 431
Joined: Thu 14 May, 2009 12:14 pm
Location: Up the Creek...Campbells Creek (nr. Castlemaine)
Region: Victoria
Gender: Male

Re: Car vandalised while bushwalking in the Wolgan Valley

Postby Biggles » Wed 13 Jul, 2022 4:09 pm

ribuck wrote:Many dashcams have a motion sensor that will start recording if the car is bumped while it is parked.


Yes, as mine does. But only if the dashcam has a front or rear, or both directions view (or a front and a rear cam installed).
A rear dashcam might have seen everything of this attack. The front — nothing.
There are some dashcams that actually begin a 360° rotation when there is an impact anywhere on the car. Something like this was featured in dashcams Australia FB page a few months back.
“Is é comhrá faoin aimsir an tearmann deiridh ag an duine gan samhlaíocht.”
—Oscar Wilde, 1890.
User avatar
Biggles
Athrotaxis cupressoides
Athrotaxis cupressoides
 
Posts: 431
Joined: Thu 14 May, 2009 12:14 pm
Location: Up the Creek...Campbells Creek (nr. Castlemaine)
Region: Victoria
Gender: Male


Return to New South Wales & ACT

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], Google [Bot] and 15 guests