11 October, 2016. 12:34
ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
TAKING SOME TIME OUT from his hectic schedule, Nathan Delaney followed up a busy day of throwing rocks at passing cars on a local highway with a barmy evening of shooting local road signs.
The 29-year-old unemployed ski instructor has made a home for himself in the small northern NSW town of Bingara, just a short drive from cosmopolitan Inverell. He made the move out there from the Stanthorpe Ski Feilds in 2012 and ever since then, no local road sign has been safe.
“Well, it started out when I’d get a 6-pack of stubbies for the drive home and I’d try to throw my empties at guideposts. Then once I remember I had the twelvie behind the seat, so I went ham on the Copeton Dam sign one night,” he explained.
“That’s when I discovered how much I enjoyed shooting road signage. At the moment, I’m trying to make a career out of it.”
Though he doesn’t live on the wrong side of his hometown’s train tracks, Delaney quickly went to work shooting every bit signage he could find.
Not long after starting his quest to become the most prolific sign shooter in the wider Gwydir community, the Liston-native began to attract the attention of the local constabulary, who asked him kindly to stop shooting so many signs.
“The [Gwydir] Shire Council accounts for about one road sign for every 10 people in the area. We expect about a dozen signs to be shot in our jurisdiction each night,” explained a Bingara police officer.
“However, with Mr Delaney’s nocturnal habits, that figure has blown out to almost 100. We don’t know how somebody receiving the disability pension could afford to shoot some many things,”
“Investigations are continuing.”
More to come.
Barmy or balmy? Not the same thing.