The Victorian Premier has vowed to help rebuild a desecrated Captain Cook statue in Melbourne as security patrols increase across the city ahead of Australia Day.
Two colonial monuments were vandalised overnight in St Kilda with the words “the colony will fall” scrawled in red paint about 3.30am.
The Captain Cook sculpture was sawn off at the ankles and left on the ground with a noose around his neck, while the Queen Victoria monument was splattered with red paint.
Premier Jacinta Allan said the state government would be working with the City of Port Phillip to repair and reinstate the statue.
“This sort of vandalism has no place in our community,” she said.
City of Port Phillip councillor Marcus Pearl labelled the act as “disheartening”.
“This is not a solitary act of mischief. It’s a repeated pattern of disrespect, especially evident around Australia Day for the past six years. Such acts blatantly disregard our community’s hard-fought principles of debate and democratic expression,” he said in a statement.
“Our community’s strength lies in its ability to engage in respectful and open discussions.
“Let’s channel this incident into driving constructive, inclusive conversations rather than allowing it to fuel division.”
It comes ahead of an estimated 100,000 people gathering at Parliament House tomorrow for the Invasion Day rally.
Uncle Shane Charles, from the First People’s Assembly of Victoria, said calls were growing louder to change the date of Australia Day.
“Captain Cook, as we say, he’s the founding father of genocide in this country,” Charles said.
”This (movement) represents a journey of the past, but we can talk about a new journey of the future.”
Security is being ramped up in St Kilda and around other statues across Melbourne ahead of Australia Day.
Heritage Victoria will inspect what is left of the Captain Cook statue to see if it can be restored.
Police are investigating the criminal damage and said several people were seen loitering in the area around the time of the incident.
