'How can we justify that?' Captain Cook memorial axed over expensive repairs
"If you had a $28,000 car and you were spending $15,000 every time you had to repair it, you'd probably get rid of the car," he said at a council meeting on May 13.
Faced with repair costs that were more than half the value of the memorial, the City of Yarra voted unanimously not to reinstate the statue.
READ MORE: Let's not cancel Captain Cook: what history tells us of the great navigator
The granite monument was toppled and graffitied over the Australia Day long weekend and is currently in council storage.
The council heard that the plaque was the target of "sustained, ongoing, annual" vandalism, with more than $100,000 already spent on repairs over 25 years.
"I think we have to separate the interesting, fascinating actually, debate out there in the community about Captain Cook," Mr Jolly said.
The mayor said that while he was "not in favour of demolishing statues of people in the past, even problematic ones", he said he supported the right of peaceful protest "to try and generate a debate about it".
"But here at council, it's much more boring than that. We have to deal with a bog-standard boring economic issue that it's $15,000 to repair, plus all the other expenses," he said.
"I don't think if we put it back up, it would be just damaged one more time, it would be ongoing, ongoing and ongoing."
Premier Jacinta Allan described the continued vandalism of monuments as "deeply disrespectful" and called for community division to end.
In 2020, the memorial's plaque featuring Cook's face was spray-painted over, with the words "shame" and "remove this" scrawled beneath.
A statue of Captain Cook was hacked off at the ankles in St Kilda, and another statue of Queen Victoria near the city's Botanic Gardens was splattered with red paint last year on the eve of Australia Day.
The bronze plaques, which belong to the memorial, are expected to be given to the Captain Cook Society, which celebrates the British explorer.
With AAP.
Repeated vandalism of a Captain Cook memorial has prompted a local council to scrap the granite monument as repair costs escalate.
"If you had a $28,000 car and you were spending $15,000 every time you had to repair it, you'd probably get rid of the car," he said at a council meeting on May 13.
Faced with repair costs that were more than half the value of the memorial, the City of Yarra voted unanimously not to reinstate the statue.
READ MORE: Let's not cancel Captain Cook: what history tells us of the great navigator
The granite monument was toppled and graffitied over the Australia Day long weekend and is currently in council storage.
The council heard that the plaque was the target of "sustained, ongoing, annual" vandalism, with more than $100,000 already spent on repairs over 25 years.
"I think we have to separate the interesting, fascinating actually, debate out there in the community about Captain Cook," Mr Jolly said.
The mayor said that while he was "not in favour of demolishing statues of people in the past, even problematic ones", he said he supported the right of peaceful protest "to try and generate a debate about it".
"But here at council, it's much more boring than that. We have to deal with a bog-standard boring economic issue that it's $15,000 to repair, plus all the other expenses," he said.
"I don't think if we put it back up, it would be just damaged one more time, it would be ongoing, ongoing and ongoing."
Premier Jacinta Allan described the continued vandalism of monuments as "deeply disrespectful" and called for community division to end.
In 2020, the memorial's plaque featuring Cook's face was spray-painted over, with the words "shame" and "remove this" scrawled beneath.
A statue of Captain Cook was hacked off at the ankles in St Kilda, and another statue of Queen Victoria near the city's Botanic Gardens was splattered with red paint last year on the eve of Australia Day.
The bronze plaques, which belong to the memorial, are expected to be given to the Captain Cook Society, which celebrates the British explorer.
With AAP.
Repeated vandalism of a Captain Cook memorial has prompted a local council to scrap the granite monument as repair costs escalate.
"If you had a $28,000 car and you were spending $15,000 every time you had to repair it, you'd probably get rid of the car," he said at a council meeting on May 13.
Faced with repair costs that were more than half the value of the memorial, the City of Yarra voted unanimously not to reinstate the statue.
READ MORE: Let's not cancel Captain Cook: what history tells us of the great navigator
The granite monument was toppled and graffitied over the Australia Day long weekend and is currently in council storage.
The council heard that the plaque was the target of "sustained, ongoing, annual" vandalism, with more than $100,000 already spent on repairs over 25 years.
"I think we have to separate the interesting, fascinating actually, debate out there in the community about Captain Cook," Mr Jolly said.
The mayor said that while he was "not in favour of demolishing statues of people in the past, even problematic ones", he said he supported the right of peaceful protest "to try and generate a debate about it".
"But here at council, it's much more boring than that. We have to deal with a bog-standard boring economic issue that it's $15,000 to repair, plus all the other expenses," he said.
"I don't think if we put it back up, it would be just damaged one more time, it would be ongoing, ongoing and ongoing."
Premier Jacinta Allan described the continued vandalism of monuments as "deeply disrespectful" and called for community division to end.
In 2020, the memorial's plaque featuring Cook's face was spray-painted over, with the words "shame" and "remove this" scrawled beneath.
A statue of Captain Cook was hacked off at the ankles in St Kilda, and another statue of Queen Victoria near the city's Botanic Gardens was splattered with red paint last year on the eve of Australia Day.
The bronze plaques, which belong to the memorial, are expected to be given to the Captain Cook Society, which celebrates the British explorer.
With AAP.
Repeated vandalism of a Captain Cook memorial has prompted a local council to scrap the granite monument as repair costs escalate.
"If you had a $28,000 car and you were spending $15,000 every time you had to repair it, you'd probably get rid of the car," he said at a council meeting on May 13.
Faced with repair costs that were more than half the value of the memorial, the City of Yarra voted unanimously not to reinstate the statue.
READ MORE: Let's not cancel Captain Cook: what history tells us of the great navigator
The granite monument was toppled and graffitied over the Australia Day long weekend and is currently in council storage.
The council heard that the plaque was the target of "sustained, ongoing, annual" vandalism, with more than $100,000 already spent on repairs over 25 years.
"I think we have to separate the interesting, fascinating actually, debate out there in the community about Captain Cook," Mr Jolly said.
The mayor said that while he was "not in favour of demolishing statues of people in the past, even problematic ones", he said he supported the right of peaceful protest "to try and generate a debate about it".
"But here at council, it's much more boring than that. We have to deal with a bog-standard boring economic issue that it's $15,000 to repair, plus all the other expenses," he said.
"I don't think if we put it back up, it would be just damaged one more time, it would be ongoing, ongoing and ongoing."
Premier Jacinta Allan described the continued vandalism of monuments as "deeply disrespectful" and called for community division to end.
In 2020, the memorial's plaque featuring Cook's face was spray-painted over, with the words "shame" and "remove this" scrawled beneath.
A statue of Captain Cook was hacked off at the ankles in St Kilda, and another statue of Queen Victoria near the city's Botanic Gardens was splattered with red paint last year on the eve of Australia Day.
The bronze plaques, which belong to the memorial, are expected to be given to the Captain Cook Society, which celebrates the British explorer.
With AAP.
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