A woke Melbourne council has caved to anti-Australian vandals and will not restore a Captain Cook memorial that has been repeatedly damaged by left-wing extremists.
Yarra City Council voted unanimously to permanently remove the Captain Cook Memorial from Fitzroy’s Edinburgh Gardens due to “ongoing costs associated with vandalism” after the granite monument was toppled and defaced on January 28 last year.
In a report the council cited a management plan for the park authored by a Lovell Chen as identifying the Cook monument as “one of many elements with little or no significance, recommending these items can ‘generally be altered, adapted, or removed as required’,” and estimated repair costs at $15,000.
The report went on to describe the monument as “an item of contention within the community and a contested figure in relation to aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians”.
The memorial was also defaced in 2020 by far-left extremists who spray painted it with antiwhite slogans, had its plaque stolen in 2021, and was painted red on Australia Day 2022.
Mayor Stephen Jolly, a long-time far-left activist and former member of the Victorian Socialists, said the decision was a “boring economic issue” and that while he was not in favour of demolishing “problematic” statues he thought the memorial was bound to be vandalised again if re-erected.
“Don’t think if we put it back up, it wouldn’t be just damaged again. It would be ongoing – how can we justify that?” he said.
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The Yarra council rewards Anglophobia and criminal vandalism. They described the memorial as of “little or no significance” and said conservation work should be prioritised elsewhere.
There will be more to come on this. pic.twitter.com/aPeHr6jbnJ
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But Australians from around the country reacted with fury to the decision, and state Opposition leader Brad Battin said on Wednesday that the decision was giving in to the vandals.
“I think we need to stand strong and remember the fact that this is part of our history,” he said.
Dr Bella d’Abrera from the Institute of Public Affairs described the decision as “intellectual cowardice” and evidence of a “deep cultural problem”.
“It is a sad indictment on the state of Melbourne that even a granite monument, quietly standing in a park, is not safe from ideological vandalism,” she told SkyNews.com.au.
Anglo-Celtic advocacy group the British Australian Community, which is running a campaign to save Australia’s monuments and place names, said the vote “rewards Anglophobia and criminal vandalism”.
“They described the memorial as of “little or no significance” and said conservation work should be prioritised elsewhere,” the BAC said.
“The erasure of our history continues,” wrote political commentator Lauryn Bahen on X.
Header image: Left, the vandalised Cook memorial in 2024. Right, the damage done in 2020 (Yarra Council).
