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The monument is notable for deliberately writing Aboriginal people out of Melbourne’s history, as its original inscription refers to the city in the mid-1830s as “land then unoccupied”, according to the council.
A plaque was added to the monument in 1992 acknowledging Aboriginal people as the traditional occupiers of the land, and then replaced with another, more strongly worded plaque recognising Aboriginal people in 2004.
More than two dozen locations around Melbourne are named after Batman, including multiple parks, streets, avenues, a hill and a railway station.
But many have begun to look less than kindly on Batman’s role as colonist, including his involvement in the murder of Aboriginal people in Tasmania in the early 1800s.
Victoria Police was also investigating reports of graffiti in Ringwood North on Saturday, with an outdoor stage on the Maroondah Highway vandalised about 2am, and two ceremonial flags stolen.
Footage shared by 3AW radio host Jacqueline Felgate on social media showed graffiti sprayed on the walls of marquees at Ringwood, where dozens of chairs were set up.
The graffiti read: “You are on stolen land, abolish Australia”, “f—” the colony”, and, “no pride on stolen land”.
The Batman memorial’s toppling came after police launched an investigation into the beheading of the statues of two former prime ministers, Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd, at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens in the early hours of Thursday.
The name plates of another 18 former Australian prime ministers’ bronze busts were damaged, with police still hunting for the culprits as of Friday.
Police estimated the damage to be more than $140,000, with each of the stolen heads valued at about $50,000.
Port Phillip Council, meanwhile, has invested about $15,000 in security measures to protect its oft-defaced Captain Cook statue at Catani Gardens in St Kilda in the days surrounding Sunday’s Australia Day.
The statue, which was sawn off at the ankles on January 25 last year, is under 24/7 guard and the council’s mobile CCTV trailer is stationed nearby streaming to St Kilda Police Station.
The council has also paid $4000 for a 3D digital scan to be kept as a template of the Captain Cook statue.
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