The bronze statue and plaque at Belvoir Park’s Celebration Garden, a gift from Brave Hearts on the Murray, were tagged with graffiti, as were play equipment and bins.

Wodonga police are investigating the criminal damage and have appealed for information.

Brave Hearts president Jenny Black noticed the damage Friday morning, at first thinking somebody had put flowers around the statute’s neck.

“It wasn’t until we got closer that I saw, of course, it wasn’t flowers,” she said.

“I was mortified, just so angry, just so hurt, it’s such a sickening feeling.”

The Celebration Garden opened in 2010 as a special place to honour people affected by cancer.

Previous vandalism saw 40 roses destroyed in May 2011, but Brave Hearts replanted the garden through business and individual donations three months later.

“It’s just the most beautiful area to sit and reflect on someone who may have lost their life to cancer or to celebrate that person’s life,” Mrs Black said.

“It’s just a lovely, quiet, serene place with the most beautiful roses.”

She was pleased the graffiti was cleaned off the statue on Saturday, but still couldn’t believe anybody would vandalise a memorial garden.

“How someone gets their thrills of doing that; you would hope they didn’t know the significance of what they were doing,” she said.

“It’s just sickening to see someone just desecrate it so much.” 

Detective Sergeant Graeme Simpfendorfer, of Wodonga Crime Investigation Unit, said the significant damage at Belvoir Park showed a blatant disregard for public property.

“At this stage we think it’s just a random attack, not targeting that particular statue and what it stands for, but until we catch up with them, we won’t know for certain,” he said.

Some of the graffiti referred to 2640, Albury’s postcode, which somebody might recognise as a tag.

“It’s really disappointing for the community as a whole to see this sort of senseless damage done and it flows on to all the ratepayers and taxpayers,” Detective Sergeant Simpfendorfer said. 

He encouraged anyone with information to contact Wodonga police on (02) 6049 2600 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

“If you are involved, again the expectation would be that you come in and see us,” he said.

Mrs Black thanked Wodonga Council for its ongoing support of the garden.

“It’s a lovely area that we treasure and many members of our community treasure,” she said.

“I hope if anyone did see anything happening, they can report it to the police.

“People need to realise how much psychological damage they do, let alone physical damage.”