A Captain Cook statue and a Queen Victoria statue in Australia have both been vandalised and cut down respectively on the eve of Australia Day.
The Captain Cook statue, located in St Kilda, was sawn off at the ankles and the podium was graffitied with the words "the colony will fall".
The remnants of the century-old monument of the British explorer was laid on the grass in front of where it once stood.
Victoria Police said the incident was reported at 3.30am (local time) and "several people were seen loitering in the area around the time of the incident".
It is not the first time the statue has been attacked. In 2022, it was splashed in red paint on Australia Day in protest of January 26.
A second statue was also vandalised a short time after, closer to the CBD.
The Queen Victoria monument in the Queen Victoria Gardens was splashed with red paint in an apparent move to symbolise bloodshed on January 26, 1877.
Workers arrived early on Thursday morning to begin cleaning the sculpture.
Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan said the state government would also be working with the City of Port Phillip to repair and reinstate the Captain Cook statue.
"This sort of vandalism has no place in our community," she said.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto described the vandalism as "totally unacceptable".
"We support the right of people to protest and demonstrate but it must always be done in a peaceful and respectful way," he said.
Police are investigating what happened with the statues overnight and urged people with any information to come forward.
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