Bicentennial gift stolen from Botanic Gardens

The missing sundail

A CUSTOM made sundial was stolen from the Wollongong Botanic Gardens on the night of Saturday September 29.
The sundial was taken from the Garden’s Rose Garden. It had been donated to Wollongong Botanic Garden by The Friends of Wollongong Botanic Gardens in 1988 as a Bicentennial gift.
The metal, three-legged dial was commissioned by The Friends of Wollongong Botanic Gardens from an Adelaide-based business.
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery is pleading with anyone who might have any information or if any scrap metal dealer or anyone who is offered the sundail to contact the Police.
“I can only describe this as a low act, to take this bicentennial gift to the people of Wollongong highlights the need for us all to be vigilant,” he said.
“We lose so many of our community assets to vandalism and theft. This is community property, our property which we all have paid for and now can’t enjoy. It makes me angry and dishearten.”
Wollongong Botanic Gardens Curator Paul Tracey has appealed for anyone with information on the theft of the sundial to contact Wollongong Police.
“It was stolen during the night on Saturday and the thieves broke into the gardens through the Murphy’s Avenue entrance, opposite Braeside Ave,’’ he said.
“At the time, residents might have thought a vehicle entering the gardens at that time of night was connected to the Backyard Festival earlier that day – it wasn’t. I’d encourage anyone who might have heard or seen something to contact the police.’’