A week or two ago, Flagstaff station was blanketed in yellow posters reading “If You See Something, Say Something”.
It is part of a Victorian Government scaremongering campaign, which was launched after the national terrorism alert level was raised to “high” last month.
As a regular reader of my blog, you should know that that seeing ‘something’ is what I do best.
In this case, the thing I saw was a low bluestone platform on the edge of Flagstaff Gardens, next door to Flagstaff station.
So what can I say about it? It is actually a ventilation structure for the City Loop, with a vertical shaft ending about 13 metres below the surface, where another tunnel heads sideways towards the underground draught relief structure.
Foonote
The access hatch into the ventilation structure is both locked and fitted with an alarm – you didn’t think something like this would be just laying around unsecured, would you?
As for the cost of the “See Something, Say Something” campaign:
Final costs for the campaign are not expected to be available until next year’s annual department report.
I’m sure the “cost” will be much higher than the monetary amount spent on slathering it everywhere.
They politicians have got to send some gravy to their mates at the advertising agencies, don’t they? 😛
[…] Marcus Wong describes it as “scaremongering”, which may be a little harsh, but I do wonder whether it’s all a bit “over the top”. […]
[…] A decade ago the government decided to ratchet up the National Terrorism Threat Level from medium to high, and in return the City Loop railway stations were blanketed in ‘If you see something, say something’ scaremongering. […]