The statue of a former colonial prime minister was cut down at ankle level and dumped next to the plinth the day before a court upheld the council’s decision to remove the monument.
The bronze statue of former Tasmanian Prime Minister William Crowther, located in Franklin Square in Hobart’s CBD, was torn down by vandals on Tuesday night and found next to the large marble plinth the following morning.
Vandals had tried unsuccessfully to break through the statue just a day earlier, but nothing was done to stop them from returning a second time and tearing down the monument.
The words “what circulates” and “decolonize” were spray painted in red on the front of the pedestal.
The statue of former Tasmanian Prime Minister William Crowther, located in Hobart’s financial district, has been toppled by vandals after it was cut off at the ankles.
Barricades were erected around the fallen statue and pedestal Wednesday morning before the statue was placed on the back of a truck to be removed.
The shocking act comes after the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal upheld an earlier decision by Hobart City Council to remove the statue.
The council voted to have the monument removed in 2022 in a decision later approved by the Heritage Council.
But the removal was delayed after supporters of the monument lodged an appeal against the decision in court late last year.
City workers were seen removing the monument from the area on Wednesday morning, loading it onto a truck and taking it away (pictured).
The pedestal was also spray painted red with the words “what happens” (pictured) and “decolonize.”
Indigenous groups campaigned for several years to remove the statue of Mr Crowther, who was a surgeon, because he cut the head off the remains of an Aboriginal man, William Lanne, and wanted to send it to the Royal College of Surgeons in London as an anthropological artefact. .
Crowther was prime minister of the then colony of Tasmania between 1878 and 1879, a decade after the skull controversy.
Crowther had wanted Mr Lanne’s remains – an object of scientific curiosity as he was considered one of the last “full-blooded” Tasmanian Aborigines – to be owned by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
However, the Royal Society of Tasmania wanted the skull to remain in the colony and opposed plans to send its remains to the United Kingdom.
Crowther and another doctor, who had access to the corpse, secretly removed the head and replaced it with the skull of a deceased white man wrapped in Lanne’s skin, but their act was discovered.
Hobart Mayor Anna Reynolds said the independent tribunal’s verdict to remove the statue was the “right decision” but condemned those who took action into their own hands.
“We are incredibly disappointed that it happened before the decision was announced,” he said.
“We condemn vandalism… it is illegal.”
Louise Elliot, now a Hobart City Council councillor, said she was disgusted by the behavior of the vandals who destroyed the monument.
“I am really disappointed that the council, in my opinion, has not taken sufficient protective and preventive measures to protect [the statue]”he told the ABC.
Councilor Elliot said she was concerned the statue would be vandalized when she visited the memorial last night and said there were not enough security measures in place to protect the structure.
Hobart City Councilor Louise Elliot said she was disgusted by the behavior of the vandals who destroyed the monument.
Ms Reynolds dismissed those claims and said council staff had installed measures such as fencing and increased the number of staff patrolling the area to protect the statue, which has been vandalized on three separate occasions.
“Our staff has increased security patrols, but it’s very difficult to try to prevent these types of things from happening,” he said.
Michael Stretton, the council’s chief executive, said an investigation into the incident is underway and CCTV footage is being reviewed.
“It’s disappointing when you see an act like this where [vandals have] “They took the future of the statue into their own hands,” he said.
A Tasmania Police spokeswoman told the Daily Mail that Australian police are investigating the damage caused to the statue.
