Thanks to the generosity of local businesses, two CCTV cameras will finally protect the Seville War Memorial from malicious vandals.
At this year’s Remembrance Day service, Seville War Memorial Committee chair Anthony McAleer OAM announced two security businesses had offered their labour and money to have the cameras installed.
“It’s fantastic. It just gives us that level of protection that I think we need.
“We certainly want to ensure that the memorial is there for generations to come, and anything else we can do to protect it and look after it is fantastic,” Mr McAleer said.
The head of local security company Advanced Security Grant Tucker will install and monitor the cameras for free, while security system suppliers Provision ISR have donated the cameras and covered installation costs.
The new cameras aren’t just any ordinary, consumer-grade products either – Mr Tucker said he got commercial-grade cameras because he wanted to ensure the criminals would be clearly identifiable.
“They’ve got a 60-metre infrared and they’re pointed directly at the war memorial, so I’m putting two cameras in, one either side of it, so we’ll see them coming in and see them going.
“Having that longer lens on them, that’s the key to be able to get the image. A lot of cameras only have a 25-metre IR, but I’m getting a longer-range one through my supplier.”
Mr Tucker has a strong connection to Seville and said when the memorial got damaged, “it wasn’t a vandalism to the community, it was a vandalism to our heritage”.
With no cameras to catch the criminals, Mr McAleer said it was disappointing their wasn’t any evidence to provide to the police.
“The fact that we didn’t have any extra evidence we could give the police in regards to it was very disappointing. So, it’s certainly labelled the need to have that extra surveillance there on the memorial.”
With Advanced Security monitoring and installing the camera and Provision ISR donating the cameras themselves, it saved the committee roughly $4000 in upfront costs.
But Mr McAleer said the real savings will be avoiding the costs of damages from vandals.
“Having this here, this is what we’re hoping is going to deter anything like that. So that will hopefully be ongoing savings to the community.”
He noted how damages from the vandalism in 2023 were paid for through grants, which meant the public were funding the costs to fix the memorial.
“So even though we missed out on that funding that was supposed to be given to us earlier, it’s still not going to cost the general public any funds. And it’s the kindness of a local community group and an organisation that has been able to make this to happen.”
The Yarra Ranges Council have taken a long time to give the committee permission to use its nearby power supply to install the cameras, citing concerns surrounding privacy with the Seville Water Play Park close by.
But Mr McAleer said he reassured the council the waterpark won’t be in the camera’s field of view.
“We’ve worked out with the shire, the cameras aren’t going to be aimed at the water play park, they’re going to be aimed at the memorial itself.”
Mr Tucker said the CCTV cameras’ contents are only accessible by the technician and Victoria Police, as the network isn’t connected to the internet.
“It’s actually a localised system. So it doesn’t have any internet connection.”
A Yarra Ranges Council spokesperson said council was working with the Seville War Memorial group on the installation of CCTV.
“It is hoped that the presence of the cameras deters future acts of vandalism against the Memorial and could assist VicPol investigations should another incident occur.”
