COPPER thieves have hit a new low with their cannibalisation of Hawkesbury structures. Now they’ve been dismembering one of our district’s historic icons – St Matthew’s Anglican Church.
The Francis Greenway-designed church on Moses Street in Windsor has been targeted four times in recent months, senior minister Chris Jones said.
The latest attack was in early August when 7m of thick downpipe was stolen. Not only had it been specially made in almost 3m lengths of thicker copper to make it almost immovable, it was also concreted in to stop it being stolen.
“It was on Friday night, August 5, and they broke the concrete base to remove the 7m of pipe,” Reverend Jones said.
“It’s an act of theft and an act of vandalism on a building with state heritage significance. We’re stewards of this and feel violated. They’re very sneaky. They would have had to roll it or have some sort of trolley to move it.” He said a parishioner with overseas tracking experience saw they had taken the pipe across to Greenway Crescent towards Cornwallis.
“I letterboxed neighbours to find out if anyone had seen anything. One said they had been woken by a loud noise and they saw a white VP Commodore ute with no plates and a home-made frame on the back parked on Greenway Crescent. Police said they can’t really do anything as it was not identifiable.
“It’s a $3000 replacement cost due to heritage constraints. We’ve looked at [non-copper] substitutes such as PVC painted to look like it or using cast-iron half way up and copper from there on.
“We’re going to upgrade the lighting and put in security cameras for better protection.” He said copper downpipe was stolen from the church three times since last September, and there was another attempt which hadn’t been successful six months ago.
Council buildings have been repeatedly targeted too, its manager of buildings Lachlan McClure said. “We have a lot of cost associated with copper water pipes, refrigerant pipes, back flow devices, electricity cables and even taps being taken,” he said.
“My estimate of cost to Council including cages for new appliances for future protection is around $20K,” he said, speaking of the last 12 month period.
Hawkesbury crime manager, Detective Inspector Paul McHugh said they had a report of copper piping and tools taken from a shipping container at Mulgrave a month ago but they were recovered. He said the lure of copper was quick cash.
“There are metal recycling places that will give you cash for copper. Those with drug habits may be pushed to this type of activity,” he said.
