Council to protect monuments with security and CCTV after vandalism
The City of Melbourne is preparing to protect Melbourne’s statues and monuments with guards, fencing and increased CCTV coverage during high-risk periods.
At its first meeting of the year on Tuesday night, the council passed a motion calling for a proactive approach to statues and monuments “during periods of increased risks to public property”.
Mayor Nick Reece said it was “very sad” but it was clear additional protection was needed for Melbourne’s statues and monuments, including security guards, barriers and fencing and expanded CCTV.
He called on the council to cover vandals’ costs: “Simply put, if you break it, you buy it”.
The council’s drive to protect statues and monuments in Melbourne comes after a 155-year-old monument was demolished and another was damaged in Flagstaff Gardens ahead of this year’s Australia Day.
The Pioneer Monument, erected in 1871 to commemorate “some of the early pioneers of this colony”, was torn to pieces with the words “Death to Australia” written across its base.
The phrase “land back” was also drawn with graffiti on the Separation Monument, which dates back to 1950 and celebrates the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the Victorian government.
Incidents of vandalism to statues and monuments in the past two years include the monument to King George V in the King’s Domain, which was beheaded in 2024, the statue of Captain Cook in Fitzroy Gardens was vandalized less than two weeks after it was re-erected following a $13,000 repair job in February 2025, the statue of Queen Victoria in Queen Victoria Gardens was sprayed with red paint in January 2025 and Zelda in front of the Trades Hall in January 2024 The D’Aprano statue and the Hochgurtel Fountain in Carlton Gardens were also targeted.
The head of the King George V statue has not been seen since it was burned at a barbecue on Australia Day, with images shared on social media.
Councilors expressed disappointment with the length of time and cost involved in repairing statues and monuments.
Councilman Philip Le Liu questioned the repair and replacement costs, which city staff said would total around $400,000. The council has an annual budget of $200,000 for the maintenance of its artworks and monuments.
He called for innovative techniques such as digital mapping to reduce the cost of replacing statues and said repairs had to be financially sustainable to avoid the council going bankrupt.
“In Melbourne, statues have been destroyed left, right and centre, and this is something we cannot live with as a fundamental fundamental principle in the City of Melbourne,” he said.
Reece said the council needed to send a message to vandals and would not reward their actions by allowing the damage to continue.
“You cannot achieve change by damaging property,” he said. “If you break it, we fix it, if you knock it over, we restore it.”
Reece called for the timeline to be updated for the restoration of the statue of King George V, which has been missing for 19 months.
It also called for a timeline for the delivery of the Vida Goldstein statue, which was commissioned in December 2023, and the reinstatement of the Burke and Wills statue, which was removed from City Square in 2017 and has been in storage since then.
The motion was passed by a majority of councillors, but Green councilor Olivia Ball voted against it on the grounds that reinstating the damaged statues could be an incentive rather than a deterrent, and that it was a “fool’s errand”, with Labor councilor Davydd Griffiths abstaining from the vote.
“Don’t think putting these back will just be a deterrent, it could be an opportunity to try again,” Ball said.
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