Wendy’s Secret Garden hit overnight by vandals

5 July 2023

By Amy Carswell and Grahame Lynch

Wendy’s Secret Garden at Lavender Bay has been hit by an extensive act of vandalism overnight.

North Sydney Sun can confirm unknown perpetrators last night broke tables and furniture, smashed handrails and damaged plants and scrubs. They also sprayed a fire extinguisher around the garden and wrote hip-hop graffiti.

Local resident Wendy Whiteley and her team of gardeners have worked to repair the damage all morning and repaired much of it by midday. She told the Sun that acts of vandalism such as this often occurred during school holidays but this is one of the worst they have seen at the garden. In this case, the vandals had set out to be very destructive. She said the police would be asked to investigate.

Councillor Ian Mutton told the North Sydney Sun that he was “astounded that people could do this to what is a local icon.”

He said he would be calling for a report at the next Council meeting on the feasibility of installing lighting and CCTV at the garden to enhance its security.

At the moment, Wendy’s Secret Garden is unsupervised and unlit at night time.

One local resident, who observed the damage early this morning, told the Sun that it was “an outrageous attack on one of the few areas of tranquillity left in the municipality. The harrowed look on Wendy’s face was heartbreaking.”