A Tasmanian mayor's routine trip to a public restroom turned into an official plea for citizens to stop snacking on the facilities.

I'm Darren Marler, and this is weird dark

news. On December 31st, 2025, Derwent Valley Mayor Michelle Dracoulis posted a message to social media

that no elected official should ever have to write. Somebody had taken bites out of a public

toilet seat in the council facilities.

And while she wanted to be absolutely clear about this situation, her statement, quote,

I'll say it plainly, please don't eat toilet seats, unquote.

D'Cololus discovered the damage herself while using the facilities the previous week.

She wrote that it appeared as though somebody had actually taken a few bites out of a toilet seat. Douglas discovered the damage herself while using the facilities the previous week.

She wrote that it appeared as though somebody had actually taken a few bites out of a toilet

seat, not scratches or scuffs, what looked like actual teeth marks, the kind of thing you'd expect

to find on a teething ring or a particularly aggressive toddler's crib rail, not on municipal

plumbing fixtures.

The Durwin Valley is located in southern Tasmania, about an hour's drive from Hobart.

It's home to around 10,000 people, the stunning Mountfield National Park, world-class raspberry

farms, the historic town of New Norfolk.

Michelle Dracoulis has served as the council's first female mayor since March 2022, after careers as an artist,

a curator, small business owner for a while, handling toilet seat consumption instance probably

was not in her job description. To be fair, don't eat the bathroom is one of those life

lessons that tends to work itself out organically somewhere

around the age of two. Most adults have internalized to this principle without requiring

formal instruction from local government. The result, there's an official mayoral announcement

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