THE Killarney Heritage Centre has once again been the victim of senseless vandalism.

President of the Killarney and District Historical Society Tony Pearson came to find the dedication plaque to the late Eric Reis had been picked up and taken around the corner where it was dropped in the driveway, breaking the bottom corners off the sandstone block sometime during Saturday night.

Mr Pearson said not only was it disappointing, it showed complete disrespect for our pioneers.

“It about how precious those bullockys were and how important they were to our history in opening these areas up right through Australia,” he said.

“They were an integral part of our history and just as important to me as some of our ANZAC heritage.”

Mr Pearson said he felt some residents cared more about the money events brought in than the community.

“Some people place more importance on making the money for the school, which is important, but they place more on that than the rights of the people of the town,” he said.

Mr Pearson said there was an increase in these kinds of incidents when events brought significant numbers of people to town.

“They’ve been seen doing other damage as well,” he said.

“I have friends who caught some pulling roses out of flowerbeds and letter boxes get pulled out.

“Saturday night they pulled an election sign out and threw it in the river. That’s nothing really but it’s just the disrespect. If it’s not yours, you shouldn’t touch it.”

Mr Pearson said people had obviously ridden the bullocks quite hard as the horns have rubbed through to the fibreglass.

“This happened last year too. They rode the bullocks and cracked the fibreglass around the horns where they connect to the head,” he said.

With over 2000 motor bike riders in town for the Killarney Border Ranges Trail Ride, Mr Pearson shared a Facebook post hoping to find those responsible.

“I’m not blaming the riders but I had hoped with so many in town they might have seen or heard something, whether it was a local or a rider,” he said.

“A lot of riders expressed their distaste about it.”

“The question remains for our town, not just the heritage centre, how can we lessen the effect of the bad behaviour.”