In a troubling development ahead of January 26th, vandals have targeted and defaced two historic monuments, despite heightened security efforts to prevent such incidents.

Authorities suspect that heavy machinery was used overnight to demolish the Pioneer Monument located in Flagstaff Gardens, Melbourne’s oldest park. Following its destruction, the ruins were further defaced with graffiti.

On the plinth of the monument, which dates back to 1871, vandals spray-painted the words “Death to ‘Australia’.” The five-meter-tall sandstone obelisk originally served as a marker for the city’s first burial site.

Similarly, the nearby Separation Memorial, established in 1950 to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Victorian colony, was also vandalized.

Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, Nicholas Reece, condemned the acts on ABC Radio Thursday morning, stating, “This sort of behavior will not and cannot be tolerated in Melbourne.”

“This sort of behaviour will not and cannot be tolerated in Melbourne,” Melbourne’s lord mayor Nicholas Reece told ABC radio on Thursday morning.

He added the incident occurred despite cameras and fences being installed to protect statues and monuments in the lead up to Australia Day, 26 January.

Reece described the vandals as “idiots”, adding they failed to understand the historic significance of the monuments they targeted.

Similar vandalism offences have occurred in the lead-up to Australia Day in recent years, often targeting sites dedicated to the city’s colonial past.

In 2025, vandals toppled a statue of Captain Cook at the entrance of Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North during the January long weekend.

Council workers remove the remnants of a Captain Cook statue in St Kilda, Melbourne in January 2024. Source: AAP / AAPIMAGE

The City of Yarra voted to scrap the statue in May 2025 due to the high cost of its upkeep, given it was repeatedly targeted by vandals.

Reece said the price of repairing the Flagstaff Gardens monuments was not yet clear, but insisted they would be reinstated.

“We cannot allow it to be the case that when statutes (and) memorials are destroyed … that is rewarded by allowing it to continue,” he said.

A crime scene has been established at the site as police investigate.

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