Vandals and thieves have been at it again with a number of businesses broken into on the weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Katherine Country Club night manager Matthew Cullen said he did not expect to spend the early hours of Sunday morning chasing youth from the grounds.
"If we hadn't been told about the kids spray painting, I'm not sure how much they would have destroyed," Mr Cullen said.
Despite being a normal busy Saturday night, Mr Cullen said a group of young people, believed to have been aged between 10 and 18 years old, managed to break into the club's machinery shed.
Read More: Local crime is off the charts
"A customer said they saw a heap of kids on the golf course starting to spray paint," Mr Cullen said.
"We interrupted them in the middle of it and chased them away.
"Police were already called and by the time I got back they were here taking photos."
The damage is expected to cost the club thousands of dollars, mainly in the way of cleaning up.
And as it was not the first time the venue had been broken into during the past couple of months, the managers were relieved the extent of the mess was manageable.
"They spray painted golf buggies, the grass and the tractor. They also completely ruined a Samsung tablet we use as a sign in device and they took a couple of beers," Mr Cullen said.
"We're just happy they didn't take the car again."
According to the Country Club course superintendent Kristy Herring the spray paint on the grass is a significant blow to the immaculate grass.
"You can't remove it," she said.
The grass is already dying underneath, and luckily at this time of year, grass grows quickly.
"We put a lot of work into those greens and to have someone come along and trash it like that is soul destroying," she said.
Across town, volunteers at Territory Craft woke to news on Sunday morning their space had been vandalised beyond recognition.
Used as a space for job seekers involved in the Community Development Program (CDP) throughout the week to learn new skills through art, there was plenty of paint to be thrown around.
"I could cry, the amount of time it will take to clean up is beyond thinking about. We are all volunteers, we all have jobs," chair of Territory Craft Sharron Buzzo said.
"The work looks like young kids. You know you can pick it when the goal is to steal something. This was just vandalism."
Ms Buzzo said the incident happened on Saturday night as there was a group at the craft space until 4.30pm for the weekly quilting session.
"Everything was locked when we left," she said.
She said she was notified on Sunday morning when someone called and said the wall was kicked in.
"The room is just covered in paint, there is glass everywhere and two big shelves of books have been covered in paint."
All this, mere weeks after the walls had been professionally repainted.
Police investigators were at the scene today, but the space will be unusable for a couple of days at least during the clean up.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox each Friday at 6am from the Katherine Times. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, sign up here.
