Family’s pain as Scott memorial trashed

THE son of crocodile attack victim Bill Scott says vandalism of his father’s memorial has been “heartbreaking” for the family.

The Scotts and Bill’s friends gathered about a year after his death at the Kakadu National Park site where he was taken by a crocodile to dedicate a concrete cairn and plaque.

But the memorial was vandalised twice and the plaque stolen before the Scotts agreed for Parks Australia to remove it.

It has since been used as a roadblock about 30km away and is now awaiting disposal at the Jabiru tip.

“It was obviously pretty heartbreaking,” son Aaron Scott said.

“It was somebody that knows it was there and were going out of their way to do something. The marks on the plaque (from the first vandal attack) look like they were from a sledgehammer and not everyone just carries around a sledgehammer with them.”

The memorial found its way to the centre of a land dispute between Aboriginal families in Kakadu.

“When we put it in place we didn’t think much about it affecting the indigenous population,” Mr Scott said.

“You put a marker up on the side of the road when a loved one is hit by a car, so that’s the way I was looking at it. I didn’t realise we needed special permission.”

Some purporting to be traditional owners approved the memorial after it had been erected, others did not.

Mr Scott said he first knew there was a problem when he was contacted by Parks Australia, which manages Kakadu.

“I got an email saying I’d contravened some sort of Act which carried a three-year (jail sentence) or $300,000 fine,” Mr Scott said.

“So I got hold of a lawyer in the end because a legal letter should have a legal letter to respond to it.

“There was about 12 months backwards and forwards, trying to get permission from TOs for the memorial to stay.”

Mr Scott said he did didn’t’ know who he was supposed to be dealing with.

“(Parks) want to work with the TOs to get something in place so we can have a memorial out there, but it won’t actually be at the river where Dad was taken, which is pretty sad really,” he said.