The Boronia Progress Hall and shops along Boronia Road were among the targets of the attack, which happened late last month.

Taggers sprayed graffiti on the side of the hall despite a sign warning that the area could be under video surveillance. The Wesleyan Methodist Church was also hit, along with bus stops.

Boronia resident Joe Hill was outraged by the graffiti. "It's most annoying when you consider people spend time and effort trying to make the place look neat and tidy. Then these clowns come along and think they have a right to mess everything up."

Mr Hill said the offenders had "no sense of community". He wondered if the graffiti attack was partly due to a lack of full-time employment opportunities.

"I personally feel the clean-up should be [the offender's] responsibility and they should have to pay for the stuff to clean up."

The owner of Adeline's Flowers of Boronia, Anne, who declined to give her surname, said the current spate was the 15th attack she had seen in her seven and a half years in business. ''Sometimes it's small words or big pictures or windows are scratched."

She is calling for better lighting in the area to help prevent graffiti attacks, along with a higher police presence ."Police can't catch them unless they're on the spot."

She said parents had a role to play in educating their children, and described the offenders as "twits". "They should know right from wrong."

She suggested offenders should be "publicly humiliated" and have to scrub the walls they had vandalised.

Senior Sergeant Cliff Sunderland of Boronia police said police targeted graffiti as part of their regular patrols.

He said police would patrol transit hubs and small business areas, and also look into specific tags to help identify offenders.

Knox Council's director of community services, Kerry Stubbings, said Knox Council had a long-standing partnership with local police to tackle graffiti.

She said the council offered free graffiti clean-up kits to schools, sports and recreation clubs.

Council spokesman Leigh Johnston said there had been no increase in the reporting of graffiti in the municipality in the past year.

However, he said that did not necessarily mean there had not been an increase in graffiti incidents.