A statue of Queen Victoria has been decapitated in the latest in a series of attacks on historic monuments in Australia honoring British historical figures.
The statue in Geelong was cut down with an angle grinder in the early hours of Thursday morning, with the words ‘the colony may fall’ sprayed in red paint on its plinth.
It follows similar attacks on several monuments to Captain James Cook in Melbourne and Sydney.
Former Liberal senator Eric Abetz said the protesters are destroying public property meant to recognize the ‘wonderful’ contributions Queen Victoria made.
A statue of Queen Victoria (pictured) in Geelong was cut down with an angle grinder in the early hours of Thursday morning
A slogan ‘The Colony May Fall’ was splashed across the plinth on which the Queen Victoria statue stood (pictured)
“These imbeciles come along who clearly have no understanding of our history … You don’t erase history if you do that, that’s when you start down the road to dictatorship and anarchy,” the chairman of the Australian Monarchist League’s campaign committee told the radio 3AW.
The statue, which has stood in East Geelong’s Eastern Park since 1912, was found lying on the ground by passers-by on Thursday morning as the protesters filmed their crime and posted it online.
The red paint that says ‘the colony may fall’ covered the words ‘Victoria, Queen and Empress, 1837-1901’.
The words ‘an empire where the sun never sets’ were also written on the plinth.
Chief Constable Andrew Wallers told Geelong Advertiser the protesters stood up to the statue and ‘earthed off, we think a bolt’.
“It looks like they may have managed to shake it off and knock it over,” he added.
Police are looking for CCTV and dash cam footage to try and find out who is responsible.
After statues of Captain Cook were targeted, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said: ‘It is important as people consider how to express their views – we have the right to express our views – to ensure that public property is respected .
“And also to remember that someone has to come in and clean up after that kind of vandalism.
‘It’s not a way to get your message across. There are much more effective ways of doing it, and that is by doing it peacefully and respectfully.’
There is debate over the fate of a Captain Cook monument that was vandalized at Edinburgh Gardens’ Rowe Street entrance in Fitzroy North, Melbourne on January 27.
Yarra City Councilor Stephen Jolly said replacing the statue would be “a waste of money” and it would almost certainly be pulled down again.
“Even people who love Captain Cook, who love Australia Day, will see that fixing a statue that costs thousands to fix is not the most important thing to spend money on.
‘Residents want better bins, more childcare services, cheaper swimming pools.
“All of these things are a better way to spend the money (than) on a statue that we know for sure will be torn down again,” he said.
In Sydney, a mayor called for a recently vandalized statue of Captain Cook to be removed because it is a symbol of ‘colonial oppression’.
The 114-year-old statue in Sydney’s eastern suburbs was hacked for the second time in four years on February 15.
Randwick Council said it condemned “all acts of vandalism and had hired heritage specialists to “repair the monument”.
A Captain Cook statue was sawed off and vandalized at St Kilda in Melbourne, 24 hours before Australia Day
Vandals sawed off a statue at Cook’s Cottage in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens (pictured)
But Greens Mayor Philipa Veitch said it was her ‘strong personal view’ that statues, such as those of Captain Cook, ‘should be taken down and removed from our civic spaces’.
“They stand as a symbol and a reminder of colonial oppression,” she said southern courier.
‘The statue should be removed out of respect for the residents who have been affected and for those who would like to take tangible steps towards truth-telling and genuine reconciliation.’
The mayor said it would be ‘more appropriate’ for the statue to be donated to the Maritime Museum.
Local police are investigating after the 114-year-old statue (pictured) in Sydney’s eastern suburbs was hacked for the second time in four years on February 15