Outrage after couple carve names into sacred site with angle grinder

Overseas, couples often celebrate their love by putting locks on landmarks.

But on the Sunshine Coast, two people have used an angle grinder to carve their names on sacred land.

A Red Centre resident and environmental enthusiast known as Wildman discovered more than footprints on top of Mount Ngungun, in Queensland’s Glass House Mountains, on a recent expedition.

“Some f***ers have decided to bring a battery-powered angle grinder up here and grind their f***ing names into the rock,” he says in a video posted to Facebook, calling it a work of “environmental vandalism”.

The post has since had more than 200,000 views.

“If more people are thinking about that sort of stuff they’ll keep an eye out, and if they see someone else doing it they might turn around and tell them to pull their heads in a bit,” he said.

There are new and old markings all over the summit, and have been for years.

“It’s pretty disappointing to see people don’t appreciate the true worth of the area,” a Queensland Parks and Wildlife spokesman said.

On its website, the Queensland Department of Environment and Science describes The Glass House Mountains area as “a special meeting place where many Aboriginal people gathered for ceremonies and trading”.

“This place is considered spiritually significant with many ceremonial sites still present and protected today,” the website states.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife said in a statement that it took vandalism of protected areas very seriously and asked anyone with information about the vandalism to contact them.