A 110-year-old Captain Cook statue in a Melbourne park has been reduce on the ankles and toppled off its stone base simply hours earlier than Australia Day.
The bronze statue in St Kilda’s Catani Gardens was reduce from its stone base shortly earlier than 3.30am on Thursday.
Vandals spray painted ‘the colony will fall’ in crimson on the memorial base and left the statue hacked off at its ankles – mendacity face down within the grass.
Workers have arrived on the park in Jacka Boulevard to remove the damaged statue utilizing a crane and to scrub off the graffiti forward of Australia Day.
The base of the statue was lined in shattered glass and one of many stone steps was torn off.
The statue has been within the park for 110 years and is believed to be the oldest main memorial in Victoria honouring British explorer Captain James Cook.
A 117-year-old monument in Queen Victoria Gardens within the Melbourne CBD was additionally splattered in crimson paint in a separate incident on Thursday morning.
A Captain Cook memorial was vandalised at a park in St Kilda early Thursday morning
Workers arrived on Thursday morning to take away and take away the damaged bronze statue
Workers spent a number of hours making an attempt to take away the crimson paint from the vandalised statue
The identical message, ‘the colony will fall,’ was scrawled on the backside of the statue of Queen Victoria, leaving a serious clean-up job for employees.
Vandals additionally left a number of cans of paint behind.
The Queen Victoria statue, unveiled on Empire Day in 1907.
Australia Day, noticed annually on January 26, marks the touchdown of the First Fleet in 1788 when the primary governor of the British colony of Arthur Philip, hoisted the Union Jack at Sydney Cove.
But, for a lot of First Nations folks, the date is considered ‘Invasion Day’ or the ‘Day of Mourning,’ with ‘Invasion Day’ protests scheduled to happen in main cities on Friday.
Police have launched an investigation to trace down the culprits accountable for the incidents.
Political and neighborhood leaders known as out the vandalism.
‘Captain Cook was a person of the enlightenment. Why would they do that to I believe an amazing human being,’ Liberal MP Angus Taylor informed the Today present on Thursday.
‘It’s one other a kind of acts that frankly, everybody ought to condemn.’
A monument in Queen Victoria Gardens within the Melbourne CBD was additionally vandalised on Thursday in a second incident
Red paint was splattered everywhere in the statue of Queen Victoria (pictured)
The vandals left cans of paint behind following the early morning assaults
The statue of Captain James Cook in St Kilda was left dumped on the bottom close to the vandalised base
Port Phillip councillor Marcus Pearl known as for the vandals to be hunted down and held to account for his or her actions.
‘This shouldn’t be a solitary act of mischief,’ he mentioned in an announcement.
‘It’s a repeated sample of disrespect, particularly evident round Australia Day for the previous six years.
‘Such acts blatantly disregard our neighborhood’s hard-fought rules of debate and democratic expression.’
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan mentioned the vandalism of the statues had ‘no place in our neighborhood’.
‘We’ll be working with council to restore and reinstate the statue in St Kilda,’ she mentioned.
The Captain Cook statue has been a frequent goal for vandals in recent times.
The statue had crimson paint thrown over it over three consecutive days in 2022 as a part of an Australia Day protest and was beforehand vandalised in 2020 and 2018.
Several folks had been seen loitering within the space across the time of the incident.
Anyone with data is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
The statue was inbuilt 1914 to commemorate Captain James Cook, a British explorer who made the primary recorded European contact with Australia’s east coast on April 29, 1770.
The identical Captain Cook monument in St Kilda was splattered with crimson paint in 2022 (pictured)
Dr Bella d’Abrera, Director of the Institute of Public Affairs’ Foundations of Western Civilisation Program mentioned Australians could be rightfully outraged.
‘Far extra Australians love their nation and its nationwide day, than there are activists who search to tear down our historical past,’ he mentioned in an announcement.
‘The vandalism this morning underscores the ignorance of those that need to cancel Australia Day. Captain Cook had been lifeless for almost ten years earlier than the First Fleet arrived on 26 January 1788.’
‘Captain Cook was one of many best explorers who ever lived and at present there may be nonetheless a lot to study from his legacy.’
‘Research exhibits that previously 5 years, lower than one-in-five Australians need to change the date of Australia Day. It’s all the time noisy minority who’re intent on making an attempt to cancel mainstream Australians and cease us from celebrating our fantastic nation.’
‘January 26 is greater than only a date, it represents the institution of contemporary Australia as a free and honest nation, it rightly must be celebrated. Mainstream Australians perceive that cancelling Australia Day is an assault on the Australian lifestyle.’