NEWS

Grandmother stands her ground against vicious council

By Molly Stewart

A 74-year-old grandmother of Goodwood has been charged with damaging up to $10,000 in private
property over vandalising street signs placed in the Unley council. She claims it was to make the signs
look better and did it as a form of activism.

Mary Kolusniewski has been charged with a lengthy five counts of property damage and will face the
Magistrates court in November, over her Vandalism of signs in Weller street ranging from the 8 th of
July to the 11th of August. Her bail prevents her from attending Weller street until after her hearing.

Ms. Kolusniewski has been a lifelong activist and fights for what she believes is right. Describing
herself as a “old lefty from way back”, it was only a matter of time until she proved her case to the
Unley council who Ms. Kolusniewski who claims she has fought with “these devils for bloody years”.

An image of Advocate Mary Kolusniewski in her garden. Photographer: Tom Huntley

Having a problem with the “huge white reflective arrows” and “concrete garbage”, she decided that
paint was a perfect way to get her view across. She describes that the colours she chose were “a lovely
colour” and provided a “great improvement” to the signage located on Weller street.

She happily owns to the graffiti of the first 28 signs, with the simple phrase of “WTF!” in bright red
paint. Shortly after, green was painted over arrowed signs after the original phrase was scrubbed off
by the Unley council. More followed after the council scrubbed off the second attempt of Mary
Kolusniewski’s form of mere activism.

Ms. Kolusniewski says that “I did it during the day to bring this to a head”.
“I could have done it at night but I did it in the open because I wanted someone to dob me in and get
some bloody action and get some change.”

The activism taken by educated individuals such as Mary Kolusniewski was sparked when the Unley
council decided to place speed humps and signage on Weller street in order to protect cyclists riding
into the CBD. Locals signed a petition to have the project removed before completion, yet the council
refused, clearly showing a lack of interest to the people they provide for.