General News
5 June, 2026
‘It’s like a war zone’
THE cost of vandalism to Cairns was set to reach “well over $1 million by the end of the year” with one southern precinct described as “a war zone”, a Cairns Regional Council meeting has heard.
Division 2 Councillor Matthew Tickner told the last council meeting that repair costs were increasing and the state government needed to step up and assist.
Cr Tickner said he had been invited to see the latest damage at the softball grounds at the Walker Road precinct which “continues to be a bit of a war zone for us”.
“They wanted to show me around a few things that happened just in the last week, including fences ripped out, stripped-down cars able to access the fields, doing ‘grassies’ all over them, creating no end of issues for their … volunteer maintenance crew, graffiti just absolutely everywhere,” he said.
“They’ve got portable grandstands that have had their roofs kicked in. They’ve lost power to almost most of the field because the power (boards) have all been ripped off.
“And their actual fixed grandstands, have all but practically been ripped apart by vandals down there, so we’ve got a lot of work to do in this space.
“We have well and truly broken over half a million dollars now in cost to council ... we are going to … really get to over a million dollars by the end of the year.”
The figures don’t include the cost to the community organisations or the effects the damage had on morale.
“In my lifetime playing sport, I’ve never seen anything like it,” a spokeswoman from the Redsox Softball Club, who wished to remain anonymous, said on Wednesday.
“Even last night they cut through more fencing, I have had a quote to repair that which is $5000,” she said.
“It’s happening every day. It is just so disheartening. All people want to do is just come and play a game and go home.”
She said the amount of people at the grounds was also intimidating and one night the club had to cancel the game altogether because they couldn’t get to the lights to turn them on.
Another time she had waited in the car until vandals had left, all the while “copping abuse” from them.
Comets Football Club president Keiren O’Brien said the club had spent at least $100,000 in repairs and security over recent years.
“Just a few weeks ago we had one of our buildings vandalised, but we are doing our part to stop it,” he said.
As well as “beefing up” security and working with council and police, the club was also working to stop the community from turning a blind eye.
“There has to be a wider, whole community effort to fix this,” he said. “We have to stop accepting that crime is a part of our lives here,” Mr O’Brien said.
“We are introducing more programs for young people, so they are not shut out, so they can be proud of their community and be more invested in it.”
The Walker Road Sporting and Recreation Precinct in Edmonton is touted as a premier complex for numerous sporting activities including softball, basketball, football and swimming as well as community event and activities.
The softball spokeswoman said the club was expecting three US teams to visit next year and the Great Barrier Reef Masters Games was scheduled for next May. “Something has got to be done, we’re just running out of money.”
Cr Tickner said he had hoped the state government’s focus on crime might have brought some change but the problem was getting worse.
“Almost daily, (council) gets calls. We had an incident recently where vandals tried to burn the cricket club nets,” he said. “As a council … we’ve put a rock barrier up to stop cars, new gates, security cameras … basically what we’re doing is turning the facility into a prison to keep people out.”
Cr Tickner said he had compiled a photographic report of the damage for council and had sent it to state MPs to urge the government to introduce a specific vandalism support fund for community groups.
