Residents stunned after discovering destructive act at sacred site: 'Shock is where I think most of the community is today'

Graffiti nearly six feet high marred the landscape of a popular tourist and sacred site in Paradise Falls, Australia, according to 9News.

Paradise Falls sits about three hours north of Melbourne, Australia, and is a popular outdoor location for tourists. The site is also a sacred place for women, according to the local Bangerang people. The graffiti appeared overnight, likely between a Saturday and a Sunday, and seems to include tags for one or more graffiti artists.

Not only is graffiti not something that most tourists want to look at, but in this case, it's also a sign of disrespect to native cultures. To graffiti a sacred site indicates that the taggers either don't know that the site is important or that it doesn't matter to them.

In fact, this aspect of culture that says "look at me" is affecting sacred sites around the world, according to the Denver Post. It seems that people care a lot more about getting attention than respecting the natural world and the people who value it.

Graffiti can also be a complicated environmental issue. Not only are the aerosols from the spray paint damaging to the air we all have to breathe, but the chemicals used to clean up graffiti aren't great for the natural world either, per Graffiti Eaters.

Learning just how pervasive graffiti can be on sacred sites and natural wonders might be a first step toward understanding the problem. Once you see the extent of the problem, you can join together with others to try to stop it. If graffiti is a problem where you live, consider rallying people together to take action against it.

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Locals believe that the parties responsible for the graffiti likely waited until it was dark to do their damage.

One local resident believes that they looked for a time "when no one else was around. I doubt that it was something that was done in daylight, I think it would have been done at dusk or dawn, or with some lights down there," she said. This local also shared that, "It's shocking. It's so shocking [...] shock is where I think most of the community is today."

Parks Victoria, which manages the natural areas around Paradise Falls, noted, "Parks Victoria are aware of the incident at Paradise Falls and we have referred the matter to the authorities."

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