This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A Northern Territory woman has trademarked graffiti on the side of a railway bridge that reads “Jesus loves nachos” in the hope it will help boost tourism to the outback town of Katherine.

Toni Tapp Coutts, an author and town councillor, spent eight months on her mission to have the absurd – and surprisingly divisive – graffiti trademarked.

She says she hopes the trademark could lead to tourism souvenirs but says it was mainly about ensuring the phrase was not lost.

“It’s three words but I thought they were important enough to trademark and make the story tangible,” she said.

Anyone who drives through Katherine can view the fading white scrawl on the side of a rusty bridge declaring the son of God’s penchant for Mexican food.

It is now synonymous with the town and can be found spray-painted on car wrecks, screen-printed on tea towels and even tattooed on people.

Tapp Coutts says the original graffiti has been there since the 1980s.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The graffitied Katherine bridge during a flood in 2006. Photograph: Terry Trewin/AAP

“This is how it started apparently: in the mid to late-80s some Aboriginal boys from Barunga community were in Katherine on a Christian convention and they wrote ‘Jesus loves’ on the bridge,” she says. “Then in the early 90s someone added ‘nachos’. Because it seemed like a good thing to do, obviously.”

The bridge, which used to carry trains but is now only used by cyclists and pedestrians, is heritage-listed, complicating prospects of restoring it.

“It’s really, really faded now, so I wanted to trademark it as a way of keeping it alive.”

Not everyone likes it, particularly some Christian members of the Katherine community, she says.

“I understand that,” she said. “That’s fine, people don’t have to love it and they don’t have to hate it. It doesn’t really matter. That’s what makes our community unique, we can get so caught up on three words.”

Whether the leading figure of the Christian religion really does enjoy a big bowl of corn chips and topping is as much of a mystery as who painted the sign in the first place.

Tapp Coutts says it was a member of her “big family” but she won’t reveal who.

The local paper has written frequently about it, including a report in 2016 on structural upgrades to the bridge which came with very specific instructions.

“‘Jesus loves nachos’ is not to be touched,” a spokeswoman for the infrastructure, planning and logistics department told the Katherine Times. “It’s an icon.”