For the second night running Wollongong Lighthouse has been the target of a graffiti attack.
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This time Wollongong City Council staff had to clean off the sign 'Keep Me White'. Twenty four hours earlier staff members removed the sign 'Black Lives Still Matter'.
Both signs were painted in red and were with signed off with a stencilled masked face, prompting Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery to consider the same person was "trying to stir up some trouble".
"The thin red looks a very similar style of writing, so I think somebody is just trying to stir up trouble," Cr Bradbery said.
The Mayor did not think the signs were "racist".
"I wouldn't describe it as racist," he said. "Yesterday it was Black Lives Still Matter - it is a pertinent message, but my approach is the lighthouse isn't the forum for this sort of thing.
"In as much as I concur with the sentiments, I don't agree with the methods in which is being expressed. Using the lighthouse this way is not the way to go."
Cr Bradbery conceded the Keep It White sign alone could be considered racist.
"That in itself, yes but I think somebody is trying to whip up division in our community. That's what I'm concerned with.
"Yes it is keep it white.....or were they having a go at those who cleaned it up yesterday.
"Keep it white might have been another means of being sarcastic. So when we went down and cleaned it up yesterday, then they decided well let's be sarcastic and put up the sign keep it white."
Cr Bradbery said the lighthouse wasn't the forum for this sort of thing and if it persisted it will just create divisions in our community.
"That is not to say we don't tackle the issue of Black Lives Matter and the history of this country but at the same time, I think someone is basically using this as an opportunity to be vexatious and also cause division," he said.
Cr Bradbery said council would now look to put more surveillance and security around the lighthouse.
"We just can't continually waste council resources going over there every day to clean up this sort of nonsense.
"I think we need to look at better surveillance and we will be looking at our options today as well as having conversations with the police," he said.
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