Taunting graffiti vandalsBy Edmund Burke
November 11, 2006 11:00pm


POLICE are searching for graffiti artists who filmed themselves vandalising trains and taunting Queensland Rail workers, and then sold the DVD across Australia.

The footage shows members from about 40 graffiti crews breaking into QR yards and tagging train carriages.

In other scenes from the underground DVD, dubbed The Killing of Brisbane:

• Vandals taunt a terrified QR employee who tries to stop them painting on his train.

• The film-makers use a hi-tech night vision camera to film themselves cutting through fences after dark.

• A QR employee chases a vandal through bush as the camera keeps rolling.

• Film-makers laugh as they record a QR worker cleaning off their "artwork" with a high-powered hose.

The DVD has been for sale for $15 in graffiti circles and at independent music stores in Brisbane.

It is also believed to have been sold in Sydney and Melbourne.

The DVD is a major embarrassment for Queensland Rail and police, who have invested millions trying to beat the city's graffiti scourge.

QR employs two full-time teams to remove graffiti at stations and railyards and the police have a 55-member police rail squad.

The Sunday Mail understands the DVD has been for sale in underground circles for almost two years.

QR said they had examined the DVD and were unable to identify anyone in it.

A graffiti artist, whose "work" features in the DVD, yesterday boasted that the Government was wasting millions trying to crack down on graffiti.

"It has no impact whatsoever. It doesn't stop us," he told The Sunday Mail.

"People aren't put off by the QR cameras any more. They are just a bit more prepared.

"They are going out with balaclavas and gloves on. You won't even know what skin colour they are."

The graffiti-dauber boasted that vandals targeted trains "pretty much every day".

"Any time of the day or night. We are all very knowledgeable of Brisbane and know all the back streets. We can just jump a fence and next minute we are on the lines," he said.

The Sunday Mail last week gave a copy of the DVD to Transport Minister Paul Lucas. After viewing it for the first time, he referred the matter to police.

"Any business owner selling this should be ashamed of themselves," he said.