Terry Scott, one of the six volunteers responsible for developing the site to its current level, said it was a “horrible look’’ when it came time for visitors to sign the mural visitor’s book and were greeted by graffiti obscenities.
“I really think it turns people off the town and I encourage anyone who knows anything about the vandalism to get in touch with the police,” he said.
Mr Scott, along with project chief Allan Weeks and volunteer Neil Gillon, are extremely frustrated by the consistency in the graffiti attacks on the site.
The site’s shade shed, which houses the visitor books, has been the target of the spray-can carrying vandals.
Mr Gillon is chiefly responsible for the upkeep of the site and its development as a “meeting point’’ in the town.
He is regularly the first person to discover the unwelcome additions to the artistic attraction.
Mr Scott told the Free Press three volunteers recently spent 10 hours cleaning up the vandalism.
He said the graffiti had become “commonplace’’ at the railway station mural platform, which acts as the viewing point for the water tank mural.
“Every single book has been attacked, the last one was only last week.
“Not only did they spend 10 hours cleaning graffiti off the shed, but they also had to tear several pages out of the book.
“We want to attract people to the town, not turn them away. It would be easy for a visitor to stop at the mural, enjoy the experience and then be completely turned off when they open up the book and read this filth.
“It is not attractive to stick around. Businesses in the main street may then miss out.”
Mr Scott said the mural celebrated Kyabram’s history and had benefited from the more than 40,000 visitors that came through the turnstiles of the fauna park.
“These people often take a look around town. We want to further develop our site and work with (Campaspe) council to bring more visitors to the site,” he said.
Tank mural volunteers have added a drone view of the tank to the online component of their promotional material, which has had 307,000 views.
“If we can get 10 per cent of these people to come to Kyabram it would be fantastic,” he said.
Mr Scott said people being greeted by graffiti and rubbish when they arrived at attractions like the tank mural was "not a good look’’.
“Kyabram has always had all its eggs in one basket, people will go to the fauna park and then have lunch there.
“They may not have visited other attractions. It would be good to have them enjoy the whole town, even stay the night,” he said.
Mr Scott said Kyabram’s mural tank was not just one of the largest murals in Victoria, it is one of Australia’s largest — 430 metres in circumference.
“We have plans for other viewing plans around the fence, but these graffiti attacks are very deflating,” he said.