It comes as the artist of the mural on the reservoir on Willans Hill, which was defaced by graffiti over the weekend, made calls for council to decriminalise graffiti on one wall in Wagga to give vandals a creative outlet.

Trina Collins spent 10 days on elevated platforms to create the mural, and was disappointed it was tagged, but not surprised.

Eastern Riverina Arts chief Scott Howie said the issue of tagging was a complex problem.

“You’ve got people who would use (dedicated walls) to develop their skills,” Mr Howie said.

“But it’s not going to stop a tagger – I don’t think there is a silver bullet for solving the graffiti problem.”

Mr Howie said the incident should not discourage the community to push forward with creating spaces for artists.

Well-known art advocate David Gilbey said it was disappointing to see Wagga’s largest mural tagged only two months after it was created.

“(Murals like these are an) attractive sense of cultural amenity,” Mr Gilbey said.

“It gave something industrial a beautiful sheen.”

The Charles Sturt University lecturer said tagging was a form of expression against oppression – a kind of street art that was different from “public art”.

Member for Wagga Daryl Maguire was against the idea of having a wall set aside for street art, saying it would only encourage more to take up the activity.

“It’s all been tried before, but these people (who tag artwork and infrastructure) have no respect,” Mr Maguire said.

“Let them paint their own houses and walls if they want – stop destroying others’ hard-earned assets.”

The state MP said the community needed to take a proactive approach to stamping out the problem.

“No one reports it (new graffiti),” he said.

“We need to clean it off, and report it as soon as it put up.

“It’s devaluing our city.”