Crime Stoppers Queensland launched its new Copper Theft Campaign at Murarrie Recreation Reserve on 26 March 2026, targeting a surge in incidents that has stripped lighting towers, irrigation systems and electrical infrastructure from sporting fields, schools and community facilities across Brisbane, often leaving them unusable for weeks or months at a time.
The campaign marks the most coordinated community response yet to a problem that has been building across southeast Queensland for nearly a decade. New signage installed at the reserve and other high-risk sites across Brisbane forms the visible part of the campaign, but the deeper ambition is to shift community behaviour by normalising the reporting of suspicious activity around electrical infrastructure before thieves can complete their work.
A Problem That Has Been Escalating for Years
Copper theft across Queensland has grown from a niche criminal activity into a widespread and highly damaging pattern of offending. Energy Queensland reported more than 500 incidents of copper theft on Queensland’s electricity networks since 2017-18, with the number rising from 40 incidents in that year to 170 in 2022-23, an increase of more than 325 per cent. On average, one copper theft incident now occurs every two days across Queensland’s electricity networks.
The problem extends well beyond the electricity network into the community sport and recreation sector. Mitchelton FC lost three kilometres of copper wiring from its sporting fields in 2023, with replacement costs estimated at over $100,000. Northside Christian FC in Bridgeman Downs was targeted four times in a single month, losing five kilometres of copper wiring at a cost of approximately $80,000. These are not isolated cases. Across Brisbane and the Moreton Bay region, junior sporting clubs, schools and community facilities have faced the same pattern: thieves arrive after dark, strip the copper from lighting towers or electrical pits, and disappear before anyone notices. The facility is then out of action until expensive repairs are completed.
The financial and community toll extends beyond repair costs. Stolen copper wiring has caused power outages affecting businesses, schools and hospitals, disrupted telecommunications, and left streets and sporting fields in darkness for extended periods. In the most serious cases, thieves have attempted to cut live high-voltage cables, creating life-threatening risks for themselves and nearby residents.
A Local Space That Brings the Community Together
Murarrie Recreation Reserve is a multi-use facility serving the communities of Murarrie and Morningside, offering cycling and inline skating tracks, a skate park, basketball courts, walking paths, playgrounds and a swimming pool. The reserve draws families, cyclists, skaters and sport groups from across Brisbane’s inner east and sits on the Bulimba Creek Bikeway, making it a well-used active recreation corridor throughout the week.
Choosing the reserve as the launch site for the Copper Theft Campaign reflects both its status as a repeatedly targeted location and its role as a genuinely community-focused space where the human cost of copper theft is immediately apparent. When copper thieves strip wiring from lighting infrastructure, families using the reserve after dark, cycling clubs running early morning sessions and children attending after-school programs bear the consequences.
Stronger Laws Now in Force
The campaign aligns with new Queensland legislation introducing tougher penalties for copper theft offenders, including new offences covering attempted theft and possession of suspected stolen metal. In cases where the theft endangers lives or disrupts critical infrastructure, offenders now face the possibility of life imprisonment. The legislative changes close a gap the state has recognised for several years, bringing Queensland into line with other eastern seaboard states that have reduced copper theft by introducing registered scrap metal trader requirements and banning cash transactions.
Crime Stoppers Queensland CEO David Hansen, speaking at the Murarrie launch, described the community impact clearly: the real victims of copper theft are the children and families who lose access to the sporting fields, parks and schools they rely on, alongside the volunteers and club officials who invest enormous effort into maintaining those spaces only to see them damaged overnight by opportunistic thieves.
How Morningside and Murarrie Residents Can Help
The Copper Theft Campaign rests on a simple premise: that community members are often the first to notice something is wrong. Unusual activity around lighting towers, electrical cabinets, irrigation pits or any other infrastructure containing copper, especially at night or in the early hours, is worth reporting. Crime Stoppers Queensland guarantees full anonymity for every report it receives.
For emergencies or crimes in progress, call 000 immediately. To report suspicious behaviour anonymously, contact Crime Stoppers Queensland on 1800 333 000 or submit a report online at crimestoppersqld.com.au. If you notice exposed wiring or damaged facilities at Murarrie Recreation Reserve or any other Brisbane site, keep clear of the area and call 07 3403 8888.
Published 27-March-2026.
