Essay by Eric Worrall
Doomsday visited the clock before the 2030 deadline.
Victoria’s $18,000 Climate Change Doomsday Clock Vandalised
A controversial $18,000 countdown clock said to mark the beginning of the end has been heavily graffitied.
By Crystal-Rose Jones
2/23/2025Updated: 2/23/2025A newly erected art installation in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy has been heavily vandalised with graffiti.
The much-discussed artwork, titled Zone Red, is the creation of Melbourne artist and climate change campaigner Yandell Walton, and was first unveiled in November 2024.
…
Yarra City Council and Victorian Police were contacted for comment.
Read more: https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/victorias-18000-climate-change-doomsday-clock-vandalised-5815118
WUWT reported on the clock a few days ago.
WUWT does not condone lawbreaking and vandalism. Having said that, I doubt this graffiti attack had anything to do with our article, vandalism and graffiti are rampant in today’s inner city Melbourne. There was a murder in Fitzroy Gardens, the site of the statue, in 2023. Reasonably safe in daylight, but not the kind of place I would be comfortable visiting after dark.
Correction (EW): h/t Nick Stokes – the statue is in Fitzroy’s Edinburgh Gardens, not Fitzroy Gardens.
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To my way of thinking the art piece WAS the vandalism.
The only art I see is the graffiti.
Placing a clock somewhere is something I do every day.
For sure no art.
Oh well. It wasn’t Flaco, or BLM? Quite unlike the US.
I spent a bit of time trying to figure out the tag, but there are way too many street gangs in Melbourne, many of them undocumented.
Perhaps someone was angry about the waste of taxpayers’ money?
That’s just terrible!!
I mean, that’s some pretty sloppy graffiti. I expected better.
Australia has major problems with literacy and lots of substandard government schools.
I was being sarcastic.
So was Eric (I think 😉 )
Thas a innsult Errick
Doomsday clocks have failed before
In the vein of – speed-cameras in the UK? Blimey … who would do that? /s
Wasn’t me… I promise.. 🙂
Anyway, I have a solid alibi,
I haven’t been anywhere near Melbourne for many year.
Yeah yeah 🙂
I would certainly have done a much neater job of it !! 😉
I think I would have colour matched and sprayed the panel as well..
See how long until someone noticed..
I spent a week in Melbourne many years ago. It was a very nice city then. Gone downhill like Chicagoland, where I lived for almost 20 years and still have a townhome on a golf course. Chicago got so bad that my son and his family moved to Raleigh-Durham NC two years ago despite living in a gated downtown community with private security.
You live in a lot of different places.
Down to presently just two from 4 simultaneous two years ago. Just decided to go to just one by sometime next year. Life changes when you become a ‘widower’. No reason to keep Chicagoland after son left two years ago (daughter left 6 years ago) and then SO passed away last May. But will take some time. Near completely refurbished when bought with no expense spared, custom and high end furniture, plus high end art. So will take a while both physically and emotionally.
I spent a year in Melbourne one week.
(or maybe that was Adelaide 🙁 )
Good one. My week included that year’s Australian Rules Football ‘Superbowl’. My God, near NFL violence with no pads or helmet. Crazy.
And no stops in play to stand around and discuss things or wait for someone to pick the ball up off the ground. 😉
Rugby League Football – the Greatest Game Of All.
ps Rud, if you think climate hypotheses are a highly contested subject, don’t get between a couple of Aussies arguing about which code of football is the best.
Now THAT’s a fundamentalist religious scene.
Yeah, nah. They only go the biff outside the nightclub now 🙁
yeah, ‘woke’ infects everything eventually 🙁
“Ref, ref – he poked his tongue at me. He must be sent off!”
aka egg-ball, aka – cross country ballet. Or as one US sports commentator once described the game on first witnessing the joke, — ‘it’s like one great long fumble, all game long’
A sooky pathetic alleged football game, perfect for the snowflake, woke loony state of Victoria.
Aerial ping pong?
that too.
You did pay your respects to Chloe, right?
(Any non-Victorians, DuckDuck Go: “Young and Jacksons, Chloe”.)
Back in the’60s in national service, every first-time out-of-towner involuntary soldier visitor to Melbourne made a bee line to Young & Jackson’s to have a beer in Chloe’s bar.
However, it was to hard have a serious conversation with someone whose face was facing you, but their eyes were swivelled sideways for the whole conversation.
Ah well, at least transport wasn’t far away come 10pm closing time, being just across the road from Flinders St railway station.
Late ’63 was my first time. Was doing Brisbane to Perth by train. Sydney to Melbourne was an overnighter, so I got to spend a day in town. Memories…..
Wait – that was art? It didn’t have a banana taped to it, so I didn’t recognize that it was art.
It would be a shame if the perpetrator had spray-painted over the solar panel.
A shame? Yes.
Poetic justice? Yes.
Perhaps I got it all wrong – the clock art installation was enriched by local street artists.
Yes, reminiscent of the frenzied work of Kandinsky, or perhaps Duchamp.
Submit that to the BBC. They will eat it with a spoon.
If JSO can vandalize historical art, why is this not framed in the same way?
I’m looking forward to JSO and Antifa providing an honor guard for the clock 🙂
JSO and Antifa have no honour !
The theme song of the Climerati:
I look inside myself,
And see my heart is black.
I see my red door,
I must have it painted black.
Maybe then I’ll fade away,
And not have to face the facts.
It’s not easy facing up,
When your whole world is black!
I guess someone thought the song needed a new verse.
LoL 🙂
not that I support public vandalism, but that only took about 24 hours longer to happen than I expected.
LOL. I was not in the country.
So you say 🙂
He has agents everywhere !! 😉
You mean $26,000 clock now.
You’re welcome
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/02/21/18000-climate-doomsday-clock-unveiled-in-melbourne/comment-page-2/#comment-4041215
Did they at least use low VOC paint?
No doubt it used oil and cfcs….
Graffitti is the art of oppressed BIPOCs. You must cherish it.
Sort of like rock, paper, scissors. Except you don’t who beats whom and when.
Of course you are right. The graffiti has enriched the installation by showing how people refuse to face the impending climate doom. It would be grossly inappropriate for the council to repair the damage
As Jeremy Clarkson famously said…
Tagging? I’m waiting for the hammer action, that’s real vandalism.
How sad. I was so looking forward to 2030 and the ceremony of the countdown and a big boom or bolt of lightning as the world ended. I’ll cancel my plane ticket to Tullamarine Airport.
I guess it wasn’t made durable enough because if it couldn’t withstand the actions of vandals, how could it possibly resist the earthquakes, tsunamis, violent storms, heat waves and other destructive weather events we’re guaranteed during the next 5 years?
I reckon it was this guy. He’s got form..
The Clock’s end came sooner than it had predicted.
“There was a murder in Fitzroy Gardens, the site of the statue, in 2023.”
The statue is not in Fitzroy Gardens (which are not in Fitzroy, or in the domain of the Yarra Council). It is in the Edinburgh Gardens.
Thanks Nick, corrected.
Edinburgh Gardens is not so safe for statues!
“the centrepiece of the park is a pedestal designed to hold a large statue of Queen Victoria. However, this statue only stood watch over the gardens for three years before mysteriously going missing more than a century ago. It was never replaced, and the bare plinth remains as a strange reminder“
“There was a murder in Fitzroy Gardens
Nick is correct, Eric.
There have been a number of murders in Fitzroy Gardens, not just one.
(just pullin’ yer chain, Nick, I’m trying my hand at nick-picking.
But I freely admit that I don’t hold a candle in the presence of THE Guru 🙂 )
Just noticed the shadows in the photo – does it look to anyone else like the PV panel is facing away from the sun?
I’m not a welder, but those joints on the bracing look amateurish. Perhaps some Aussies ought to demand to see the invoice and inspect the work.
For sure, the joint on one of the square section looks lumpy, though hard to tell from the picture – could just be a blob of paint.
The material doesn’t look very thick, quite flimsy really, so it will be interesting to see what else happens to the clock.
Does it meet code?
How tall is it;
How much does it weigh?
Special inspection approvals for welds?
Seismic?
Electric permit?
Wouldn’t want to leave a hint or anything that might be mistakenly taken as supporting destructive behaviour, but why is that PV panel still intact?
Plenty of Aussies could look at a welding job and assess it as crap.
But not the greenies who infest the local municipal councils and bureaucracies.
They’d think a dollop of wombat shit on a storm drain cover was an example of first-class welding workmanship.
The paint is still sticking so at least they knocked the slag off…
What did the slag look like?
What was she wearing?
Was she from Fitzroy?
Now where did the rascals get the idea for that? Ah well a slap on the risk and don’t be naughty.
Everyone who knew this was going to happen, raise your hand!