There’s been a car sitting on the side of the highway near
our house for over a month. It’s either
been dumped or abandoned by joyriders. For a
few days it sat pristine but then the local vandals started to work on it: a
headlight kicked in and a door dented: pretty small stuff but Tasmanian vandals
are a bit softer than their mainland cousins.
In a perfect world someone would have moved it. It might be a Council responsibility or, as
it’s a highway, the Main Roads Board (if there is such a thing). The Police might have taken an interest
because it’s certainly been a traffic hazard, and might well be a crime scene,
but nothing has happened. I can just
imagine the buck-passing that has been going on from one department to another
as everyone tries to avoid responsibility.
After about three weeks a sign was sellotaped to the back of
the car: THIS CAR HAS BEEN
REPORTED. Probably some anxious
telephonist has got tired of fielding the increasingly desperate phone
calls. The sign might have acted as
encouragement as the vandalism increased to the point where every window was
broken, the bonnet had been pulled off and the roof dented. The culmination came the other day when it
was torched overnight.
As if by magic, the carcass was removed the same day and,
today a Road Maintenance vehicle was parked beside the burn mark on the road,
hopefully to clean it up. Maybe the
regulations are clear on whose responsibility it is if the car has been
burned-out. Like the other residents, I’m
just happy to see the end of it.
Perhaps, the saga will continue, though, as there is now another
car sitting on the side of the highway about 100m from the first one. Time will tell.
We’ve had a fantastic weekend. Our friends from Canberra arrived on Friday
and kept us hopping until we pushed the last of them on to the plane on
Monday. We saw wonderful things, ate
great food and the occasional wine, and rebuilt our faith in our fellow-man. There is life apart from the Craft Fair.
