A call for increased lighting at the Shellharbour Village War Memorial has been rejected by Shellharbour City Council.
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The request was made following damage to the Boer War section at the top of the monument, believed to be the oldest war memorial in Australia, by an ‘‘intoxicated adolescent’’ climbing on it in June 2014.
The Warilla RSL sub-branch had spent $20,000 restoring the section in 2013.
Last year Shellharbour City Council knocked back a request to have the memorial monitored by a CCTV camera after an audit found the site had a ‘‘low risk’’ of crime.
The council said the current lighting was upgraded in 2006 with a spotlight aimed directly at the memorial.
‘‘Council officers believe that the current level of lighting is more than adequate to highlight the presence of the memorial and deter vandalism,’’ the council said.
The Boer War section, known as the Atchison War Memorial, dates back 115 years to when the family of the late Private Samuel Charles Atchison erected a monument in his memory after the 24-year-old was killed in action at Rensburg, South Africa, on February 22, 1900.
The memorial was unveiled on May 30, 1900, and was located in various places in Shellharbour until it found its current home in Caroline Chisholm Park in the 1980s.
The south face of the war memorial commemorates Shellharbour residents who served in World War I, the east face commemorates those who fought in World War II, while the west face honours servicemen who died rescuing survivors from the Cities Service Boston tanker off Bass Point in 1943.
Vice-president of the Warilla RSL sub-branch Don Briggs said the damaged section had now been returned to the top of the monument but was not yet satisfactorily repaired.
‘‘Chunks are still missing where it fell and hit the ground,’’ Mr Briggs said.
He said additional lighting would not only protect the memorial, but benefit the growing number of people attending the Anzac Day dawn service in Shellharbour Village.
‘‘Anzac Day in Shellharbour Village is getting bigger and the light is not good enough ... the council do not have their priorities quite right yet.’’
The sub-branch will lay a wreath at the memorial on Friday at 10am at a service marking 115 years since the death of Private Atchison.
The cost for additional lighting was valued at $1000, plus annual costs of $250.
The council resolved to continue to monitor the situation and if an increase in anti-social behaviour was reported then the council would review its options.
