Australia surrenders to anti-colonial activists as vandals who repeatedly defaced Captain Cook memorial win ultimate victory

A contentious Captain Cook memorial that has been the people of repeated vandalism is acceptable to beryllium scrapped.

The City of Yarra connected Tuesday voted unanimously to region the statue, which stands astatine the entranceway to Edinburgh Gardens successful Melbourne's interior north.

The granite monument was toppled and graffitied implicit the Australia Day agelong play and is presently successful assembly storage.

A assembly study recovered that it would beryllium costly, astir $15,000, to repair and reinstate the statue aft it was toppled and spray painted with the words 'cook the colony' past year.

More than $100,000 has already been spent implicit the past 25 years to support the memorial.

Mayor Stephen Jolly said removing it would destruct the yearly attraction costs.

'It's a discarded of ratepayers' money,' Mr Jolly told ABC Melbourne.

The memorial has been vandalised respective times since 2018.

In 2020, the memorial's plaque featuring Cook's look was spray-painted over, with the words 'shame' and 'remove this' scrawled beneath.

A akin statue of Captain Cook was hacked disconnected astatine the ankles successful St Kilda, and different statue of Queen Victoria adjacent the city's Botanic Gardens was splattered with reddish overgarment past twelvemonth connected the eve of Australia Day.

Mr Jolly denied assembly was giving successful to the vandals.

'I don't deliberation it's a bully thought to destruct statues of radical from the past... But we simply can't spend it,' helium said.

'If we wanted to support it determination permanently, we would astir apt person to person information guards determination (and more) lighting. I conscionable don't deliberation the locals privation that.'

Premier Jacinta Allan described the ongoing vandalism of monuments arsenic 'deeply disrespectful' and called for assemblage part to end.

'It is disappointing,' she told reporters connected Wednesday.

The bronze plaques, which beryllium to the memorial, are expected to beryllium fixed to the Captain Cook Society, which celebrates the British explorer.