An Anzac memorial in Melbourne has been vandalised ahead of Australia Day, with a monument to the founder of the city toppled over and smashed.
Victoria Police are investigating both incidents which occurred during the early hours of Saturday morning.
The Anzac Memorial on The Avenue in Parkville was covered in red paint and the monument to John Batman, the founder of Melbourne, was destroyed.
The Batman memorial at the Queen Victoria Market in the CBD appeared to have been sheared off its base and in half in the attack about 2.20am before it was pushed over and broke into multiple pieces on the ground.
The inscription on the memorial stated that Batman ‘entered Port Phillip heads 29th May 1835, as leader of an expedition which he had organised in Launceston V.D.L to form a settlement and founded one on the site of Melbourne, then unoccupied’.
A plaque was added in recent years to acknowledge Indigenous Australians.
‘The City of Melbourne acknowledges that the historical events and perceptions referred to by this memorial are inaccurate. An apology is made to Indigenous people and to the traditional owners of this land for the wrong beliefs of the past and the personal upset caused,’ the addition read.
The Anzac statue which bears the inscription ‘we died for country, live ye for it’ was covered in red paint about 3am. The words ‘land back’ were graffitied on the statue.
The John Batman memorial was destroyed in Melbourne’s CBD early on Saturday morning
The monument had an inscription referring to Melbourne as ‘unoccupied’ when the city was founded by John Batman in 1835
Red paint was also smeared across an Anzac statue at The Avenue in Parkville along with the phrase ‘land back’ (the statue before it was vandalised is pictured)
The statue was erected in 1925 to honour soldiers from the area who fought in the First World War.
Crews spent Saturday morning cleaning up both sites.
Elsewhere in the city, at Ringwood Lake Park about 2am the words ‘the colony will fall’ and ‘this land is stolen’ were spray-painted on a marquee used for citizenship ceremonies.
Anyone with information on the incidents is urged to contact police.
