The Sunshine Coast community awoke this morning to learn that Owen Cavanagh’s famous surf mural has been destroyed for the second time in as many months, with graffiti vandals defacing the artwork with spraypaint tags.

Artist Owen Cavanagh first brushed the piece in 2001, a homage to the Sunshine Coast waves and Old Woman Island seascape. Less than a month ago, he was forced to travel from his home in Gladstone to restore the mural, which was left in a tagged mess when brainless vandals covered it with crap. Today the sad state of affairs has repeated, as the lowlife vandals have struck again.

Know who did this? Call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000

The iconic mural, in the canefield near Pacific Paradise by the Sunshine Motorway, is now on council land and is reportedly planned to be incorporated in the new airport developments.

In a cruel twist of fate, Mr Cavanah was involved in a serious car accident earlier this month when he returned to fix the mural, spending the night in a ditch on the side of the road after his 4WD flipped – it didn’t stop him gathering with the community and fixing the artwork days later.

Owen and his girlfriend were lucky to be aliveafter the accident in the early hours of the morning. One of the rear wheels of their Nissan had actually detached at speed on the highway, just north of Gin Gin, with his girlfriend driving at the time.

“I’d just nodded off and as I came to, I thought the wheels had gone off the side of the road , but one of the rear wheels decided it didn’t want to be part of the car anymore,” Mr Cavanagh told the Sunshine Coast Daily.

“The wheel was grinding across the bitumen on the hub and it made us swerve to the right into oncoming traffic, but Natasha managed to bring it back and we’ve gone down the bank, done a full somersault and ended up back on the roof,” he said.

Whilst again the community is seething over the latest vandalism, thoughts turn to catching the culprits. Facebook readers have already highlighted that the local grafitti scene is pretty tight and there must be a lot of people who know who has done this.

If you see or know of anyone or anything to do with this, you are urged to contact

Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000

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Vandals make a mess of Coast mural masterpiece Via Sunshine Coast Daily

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