Statue of controversial Aus premier cut down, spray-painted

A statue honouring controversial Tasmanian Premier William Crowther, known for mutilating the body of an Aboriginal man, has been cut down from its plinth in Hobart.

The statue was found face down and vandalised this morning, having been sawn off at its ankles. The base was spray-painted with the words "what goes around" and "decolonise".

In 1869, Crowther cut off and stole the skull of deceased Aboriginal man William Lanne, intending to send it to London's Royal College of Surgeons. To conceal his act, he replaced the skull with one from another corpse.

A statue of Crowther was erected in Hobart's Franklin Square four years after his death, in 1889.

Members of Tasmania's Aboriginal community have campaigned for years to have the controversial statue removed.

"I'm not endorsing what's happened, but I think it goes to show that the people of Tasmania understand right from wrong and are saying 'enough is enough'," Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre campaign manager Nala Mansell said.

"We've been fighting for decades for it to be gone."

Yesterday, a person attempted to saw through the statue but stopped two-thirds of the way through.

Hobart City councillor Louise Elliot, who reported the incident, said she was "appalled".

Elliot visited the statue at 8pm last night, worried there would be further damage, and stood there for half an hour.

"No security was here," she added. "I expressed that increased patrols were not good enough — they [the vandals] are coming back, the job is two-thirds done — and I was right."

The council was due to make a decision today on what to do with the statue following the vandalism when it was taken down.

The statue has since been removed and the site wrapped up after a failed attempt to move the pedestal with a crane.

The council had initially voted last year to remove the statue due to the controversy surrounding Crowther when it was appealed on the basis it would detract from the site's "heritage value", the ABC reports.

That ruling was handed down today after the statue was cut down, upholding the original decision for removal.

Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson called the vandalism "regrettable".

"Regardless of anybody's sentiment or feeling – good intentions or otherwise – that's not how we run a civil society," he said.

"Horrible things happened in our history, but you don't resolve history [through] vandalism."