What hurts about the theft of plaques from historical monuments is the directness of the assault on “the commons” – the jointly owned community resource they represent – and also the relatively trivial benefit the thieves will be receiving as a personal offset for the community’s loss. With copper currently selling on the scrap market for between $10 and $12 a kilogram, it doesn’t seem like much of an earner. But I suppose if you are desperate enough, if you can gather a lot of material together and if offloading the stolen stuff is easy then of course it’s an option.

While the theft of historical artefacts and artworks is galling, it’s just a small piece of the picture. The theft of copper pipes and wiring is a bigger part and, again, it’s publicly owned assets that seem to be the most common targets. My first reaction, on hearing about these thefts, is to mentally condemn the thieves for their antisocial contempt for the rest of the community.

My second reaction is to recognise that these grass-roots assaults on “the commons” are really just a low-level manifestation of exactly the same contempt for society that we see every day at much higher levels and on a much grander scale. It’s the same thought that occurs to me when I consider graffiti. I think most graffiti is ugly and I don’t think it enhances the shared environment. But when I compare the “ugliness” that I see in much graffiti with the ugliness of a lot of other things that have been imposed on that same environment then I cool my jets a bit and reconsider. I have to admit it’s really no uglier than most advertising signage or even many of the buildings we are surrounded by. Frankly, there isn’t much attractive about much of our modern urban and suburban environments, so I can put graffiti into context in that way: people without much power asserting themselves by making their marks on their unremarkable surroundings.

Copper theft is different, but similar in that it’s almost certainly people at the lower end of society’s pecking order who are doing the actual theft – just like all burglary and theft, really. While we get very upset about these very direct assaults on our public and private possessions, they are dwarfed in scale by the grand thefts perpetrated every day by various players at the upper ends of our social pecking order. A park gets rezoned to suit a shopping centre developer. A politician takes a bribe and votes to help a corporation rob a community. A multinational contracting corporation rips off taxpayers for millions, repeatedly, and is never punished. A relative or friend of a corrupt politician gets shoehorned into a well-paid public role. It’s practically endless. So, is it any wonder that some of the little people – when they start to feel the pinch – feel justified in antisocial actions to enrich themselves in whatever ways they can think of?

That’s just by the way, I suppose. It’s human to feel more affected by the most direct assaults on ourselves, our possessions and our environments. So, back to copper theft . . .

My home town of Newcastle, NSW, is suffering from copper theft. Not just copper, but brass, bronze and any of the non-ferrous metals that are currently in such demand in the scrap market. What’s making this spate of thefts more visible than it might otherwise be is the fact that the thieves have been targeting historical monuments, memorials and public art. A couple of years ago Stockton’s famous statue of Tessa, the seeing-eye guide dog, was stolen. Maybe that wasn’t for scrap. Maybe somebody just wanted their own statue of a dog. But this year’s theft of a lifesize bronze model of an Aboriginal canoe from Belmont was almost certainly for scrap, since the model itself was cut by the thief, to get around the strong anti-theft measures that had been used to protect it. Bronze doesn’t sell for as much as copper, but it yields a better price than brass, according to the many scrap dealers touting for business on the internet.

The old powerhouse on the site of the former Richmond Vale Railway, near Cessnock, was recently hit, with thieves stealing a large amount of copper wire, cable and other equipment. People who had hoped to resurrect the site for tourism were disappointed at the apparent lapse of security that allowed the thieves such easy access.

Cemeteries have been plundered, with plaques levered from grave markers. And all over the city and region, historical plaques are being stolen for their scrap value. Sometimes hundreds of years old, these plaques are typically riveted or cemented to buildings or plinths, and give information about the objects they are fixed to. I’m not sure if anybody is making a list of the stolen items. Often it takes a while for the losses to be noticed.

In Newcastle the most conspicuous recent loss was the panels from the sides of the city’s famous Jubilee Monument – also known as the Coal Monument. This monument was erected in 1909 to commemorate the city’s civic jubilee – a celebration of 50 years since Newcastle was first incorporated as a municipality. It features a block of faux-coal with a set of plaques illustrated coalmining and export – the original foundations of Newcastle’s prosperity. The Jubilee monument is a “frequent flyer” among local memorials, having been shifted from its original location in Hunter Street Extended near Newcastle Hospital in 1922, apparently to make way for electric trams, then from its next location in Parnell Place to make way for the controversial Supercars race. When the coal monument was removed for the car race some residents asked about its absence and the council promised it was being restored and would be reinstated out of harm’s way. It took about a year, but it did return as promised, replacing another monument – a column from the city’s first courthouse – which was quietly removed by the council and is said to be in “storage”.

Numerous other plaques have been stolen. As many as 20 appear to have been taken from Newcastle’s foreshore area, including the original plaque placed by the Broken Hill Proprietary Co (BHP) to commemorate the loss of seamen on its ships during World War 2.

While the loss of these historically important items is especially conspicuous, theft of copper pipes, wire and fittings from old buildings had been going on for years before the relatively recent increase in incidence. Long runs of copper wire from overhead supply lines have been stolen, causing serious inconvenience to the people who’ve lost power as a result. It’s also not confined to Newcastle and surrounds. Elsewhere in Australia copper theft has been a major problem for some years, ever since the price of copper jumped in response to increased demand.

Globally metal theft is a major issue, as this Wikipedia article comprehensively explains. Anecdotally, it appears that the problem gets worse not only as metal prices rise, but also as wealth and income inequality increase. This may dovetail with my theory that lawlessness at the higher income levels of society is mirrored at the lower levels, since it’s the people at the higher levels who drive the policies that make inequality increase.

Of course you have to wonder about the receivers of these stolen items: surely they have some inkling of what they are buying? I have heard rumours that organised crime groups are interested in scrap metal, so perhaps that’s a factor. The NSW Police Force is in charge of regulating the scrap industry, and amendments to the law surrounding scrap metal were passed late last year as explained here.

As far as the memorial plaques and similar items are concerned, it’s fortunate that many of them had been recorded and can be replaced. Ed Tonks, in particular, has a comprehensive collection of images of many – perhaps most – of the plaques placed around Newcastle and the Lower Hunter. When it comes time to replace the stolen items, perhaps this time they should be made of resin or some other material with no resale value. (At least that’s an option with plaques, unlike cable and items that have to conduct electricity.) With economic conditions showing no sign of improving, and with inequality accelerating year on year, I can’t imagine “easy money” avenues like metal theft being abandoned by those desperate or unscrupulous enough to pursue them.

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Pillar of the community quietly disappeared

Two odd tales of shifting gates